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Mayweather And Pacquiao Top All Celebrities On Highest Paid List

By Joseph Santoliquito

PHILADELPHIA, PA (CBS) — They exceeded Katy Perry, LeBron James, Beyonce, Peyton Manning and every other entertainer in the world. And sports fans scoff that boxing is dead.

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are laughing all the way to the bank, topping the 100 highest-paid performers for 2015, according to Forbes Magazine.

In one year, Mayweather garnered a record $300 million on Forbes' "Celebrity 100: The World's Highest-Paid Superstars of 2015." The annual total exceeds that of any other athlete in history, stemming from his historically popular, though dubiously entertaining, May 2 fight with Pacquiao.

And for the loser, Pacquiao hauled in $160 million for the fight, which established new box office pay-per-view record 4.4 million buys. 'Pac-Man" is No. 2 on the list.

So much for boxing "being dead."

Coming a distant third was Perry, who Forbes listed as No. 3 thanks to her Prismatic World Tour, which garnered $135 million. British boy band One Direction was fourth with $130 million, and radio host Howard Stern, with $95 million, was fifth.

The rest of the top 10 were country-music star Garth Brooks ($90 million) sixth, writer James Patterson ($89 million) seventh, pop star Taylor Swift and actor Robert Downey Jr. tied for No. 8 ($80 million) and
soccer star Christiano Ronaldo ($79.5 million) was 10th.

James finished No. 18 with $65 million.

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