Four marquee boxing and UFC pay-per- view events over the next two months could salvage what has been an otherwise weak year for the category.

After generating more than $500 million in revenue last year — some $400 million from just the May 2, 2015 Floyd Mayweather- Manny Pacquiao welterweight title fight — the live PPV-event category has garnered less than half of that take through the first 10 months of 2016, industry sources said.

Distributors hope a flurry of big PPV events in November and December will help pad the category’s revenue take. The latest addition to the PPV category is the Dec. 30 return of UFC star Ronda Rousey to the octagon, more than a year after her shocking loss to Holly Holm in last November’s UFC 193.

UFC CARRYING THE LOAD

The show joins UFC’s Nov. 12 PPV event from New York’s Madison Square Garden, which will feature popular UFC fighter Conor McGregor. In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development Mark Boccardi said that the appearance of Rousey and McGregor in two of the final three UFC PPV events -- the MMA outfit will also distribute its UFC 206 event on Dec. 10 -- will cap off what has been one of the most lucrative years for the UFC in terms of PPV revenue, although he would not disclose specifics.

“Clearly, this is a year where the UFC is helping the entire category,” Boccardi said. “Everyone sees that boxing is down — we had no Mayweather and one Pacquaio fight so far [this past April against Timothy Bradley Jr.] — so the UFC’s really strong performance is good for the overall health of the business. The events feature two tentpole athletes for PPV in Rousey and McGregor — the two are by far the biggest UFC PPV stars — and the crossover appeal that Ronda has you can’t overstate.”

Related > UFC: Too Legit to Quit

Two high-profile PPV boxing events will also take place within two weeks of each other in November. This Saturday ([Nov. 5) Pacquiao will step into the PPV ring for a fight against WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas, while Nov. 19 will pit Sergey Kovalev against Andre Ward in a battle of undefeated light heavyweight boxers.

Boxing promotion company Top Rank, which is distributing the Pacquiao-Vargas fight, isn’t concerned about cannibalization, given the back-to-back-to-back marquee PPV events, company president Todd duBoef said.

DAILY DOC SERIES KICKS OFF

Top Rank recently turned to the Web to promote the fight. The network last week launched ALL IN: Pacquiao-Vargas, a daily documentary series on Top Rank’s Facebook page and Twitter feed that it said will give boxing fans an inside look at each fighter’s daily preparations.

Related > Building Boxing's Next PPV Champ [subscription required]

HBO will push the lion’s share of its promotional efforts for the Kovalev-Ward fight to the week before the event in an effort to avoid the marketing noise from the Pacquiao-Vargas and UFC 205 events. While there is a concern about potential cannibalization of viewers, HBO vice president of programming Tony Walker said the network is confident its event would appeal to boxing fans looking for a competitive matchup between undefeated fighters.

“There are some [cannibalization] concerns, but we think our fight is of a quality that will make people watch it,” Walker said.

When pound for pound pay-per-view boxing champion Manny Pacquiao stepped out of the ring and into retirement after his April 9 unanimous decision win over Timothy Bradley Jr., so went the second-biggest revenue generator in pay-per-view event history.

Pay-per-view boxing’s all-time revenue generator, Floyd Mayweather, had already hung up his gloves last year. The retirements of PPV boxing’s two top draws leaves the category with huge shoes to fill as it comes off its most-successful year ever — success due largely to the record-setting “Fight of the Century” between Mayweather and Pacquiao on May 2, 2015.

It could be years before another PPV-boxing match rises to match the performance of Mayweather-Pacquiao, which raked in 4.5 million buys and more than $400 million in revenue. But it might take just a few rounds for the sweet science to crown some new champions capable of consistently surpassing the industry’s benchmark of 1 million PPV buys, boxing observers said.

Up-and-coming champions aren’t just getting greater television exposure from traditional boxing outlets like HBO and Showtime. New distribution hubs such as the Premier Boxing Champions series — which airs on NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN and Spike TV, among other outlets — are affording exposure to young fighters. And digital media, with its reach and immediacy, can help a fighter quickly build a brand beyond boxing circles.

“There’s always going to be the question of who’s next,” In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development Mark Boccardi said. “It’s a cyclical business and since the late 1990s, there’s always been someone to be that guy or those guys, and within the industry everyone is confident there will be a fighter or fighters who can do that.”

Indeed, after such heavyweights as Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis — as well as lighter-weight fighters like welterweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez — dominated the PPV category in the 1990s, there was a lull before Oscar De La Hoya assumed the mantle in the mid-2000s. Once De La Hoya retired, the stage was set for Mayweather and Pacquiao to rule the PPV event business.

STAR SEARCH

The template for building a PPV fighter has already been established, said Bob Arum, the president of boxing promotion company Top Rank. The key now is to find a fighter or fighters who can follow the game plan.

“It all depends on taking a fighter and putting him in a position where he can attract people to spend money on PPV to watch him fight,” Arum said. “That’s easily said and hard to do.”

Arum, a veteran promoter who worked with Pacquaio and promoted Mayweather in his early boxing years, said that in addition to championship in-ring skills, first and foremost a successful PPV fighter must appeal to as many demographic groups as possible — something both of the aforementioned fighters were able to accomplish over the years.

So who’s closest to stepping into the vaunted PPV ring? The consensus among most boxing observers is that Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez is poised to make the quickest move to PPV superstar status. The middleweight champion — who’ll fight Amir Kahn in a May 7 HBO-distributed PPV event — has already participated in the third-biggest PPV event of all time: his 2013 fight against Mayweather, which drew 2.2 million PPV buys.

His last fight, in November 2015 against Miguel Cotto, pulled in more than 900,000 buys, according to HBO.

“Clearly, with Canelo, you have a PPV superstar that can transition into the next great era,” Mark Taffet, president of sports marketing/consulting company Mark Taffet Media, said. “The challenge for the sport, in order to create a regular flow of million-buy mega-fights, is to develop a great supporting crew.”

Other up-and-coming fighters like welterweight champion Keith Thurman, junior welterweight champ Terence Crawford, middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin, undefeated former super middleweight champion Andre Ward and heavyweight champions Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua have been identified as potential draws either on their own, or pitted against one another in PPV mega-fights.

Top Rank will look to build a July PPV card featuring Crawford, Arum said, while the industry is hoping to schedule at least one fall PPV mega-event, although it’s unclear who would headline it.

STILL BUILDING FANS

But as good as those fighters are — and as well-known as they are within boxing circles — they still have yet to develop the broad, diverse audience they’ll need to win in the PPV arena, according to boxing observers.

“It takes time,” said Tony Paige, a boxing broadcaster and sports-talk host on New York radio station WFAN. “The fighters will have to build themselves up with big fights over time to become big PPV draws. If you get enough big wins, you’re driving the bus, so to speak.”

Some observers said the development of the Premier Boxing Champions series, which showcases current champions and young fighters on live fight cards airing on NBC, CBS, Spike TV, ESPN, NBCSN, CBS Sports Network and FS1 — along with other networks like BET and truTV from time to time — as a step in the right direction.

“The sport is not only in the transition to see who ascends to the mountaintop next, but I think there’s a great opportunity with the quickly changing television landscape and technology to reach out and attract the next generation of fans to support the next generation of fighters,” said Taffet, who most recently served as senior vice president of HBO Sports. “It’s a challenge promoters and networks must readily accept to insure a very fertile environment for the sport going forward.”

But offering fights on too many outlets could actually curtail the ability to create one or two mega-stars, Paige cautioned. “It’s hard to build up interest in one particular fighter when that fighter fights one month on one network and then maybe three months later on another network,” he said. “It’s hard for fans to keep up with the schedule.”

Developing continuity in the sport’s message to the consumers is critical if boxing is to build its next wave of top fighters into PPV superstars, Taffet said. “It’s important for consumers to regularly be in touch with the sport, the athletes and the storylines, so that in their increasingly busy, media-savvy days they can develop the attachment that leads to true fan support on an ongoing basis.”

One way to get a fighter’s brand beyond boxing’s core fan base is via social media. Digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram give promoters, fighters and sponsors a chance to continuously feed fans’ appetites in ways that have yet to be fully exploited, Taffet said.

Added WFAN’s Paige: “If you don’t get beyond your core followers you’re just preaching to the choir. What always makes boxers and boxing successful is when you get a crossover audience of people that don’t have anything to do with boxing, but are interested in the fighter.”

Getting to that point will take a combined eff ort from several corners, according to executives.

“It’s not just as simple as everyone getting together and saying let’s just create someone,” said In Demand’s Boccardi. “It’s a combination of the promoter doing their job and finding the fighters, the networks doing their job and helping to develop them, and the PPV industry doing their job to help promote those fighters.”

To read the headlines, operators and cable networks are on the ropes these days, given recent trends toward time-shifted viewing and its negative effect on ratings.

Still, several networks are fighting back with the power ratings punch of live ring sports.

Live boxing, pro wrestling and mixed-martial arts (MMA) programming continues to deliver healthy ratings numbers for networks like FS1, Spike TV, USA Network, Showtime and HBO as sports fans gather in front of large screen TVs to watch action-packed — and unpredictable — DVR-proof live events that help drivesocial media discussion before, during and after the fisticuffs.

Moreover, distributors are experimenting with new technologies like 4K and virtual reality for live ring sports events, while others are exploring OTT options to allow fans to watch all the action on multiple screens.

“It’s unscripted, it’s live and it’s real,” FS1 senior vice president of programming, research and content strategy Patrick Crakes said. “Two people in the ring together trying to test each other — anything can happen at any second.”

RELATED:Stepping Into the TV Ring: A Sampling of Live Ring Sports Events March 1-May 31

SPOILING FOR FIGHTS

Viewers, it turns out, like a good fight, and lots of them are tuning in to see the action. Spike TV’s Feb. 19 Kimbo Slice-Dada Bellator 149 MMA telecast drew a record 2 million viewers — the biggest audience for the general-entertainment channel this year outside of its hit series Lip Sync Battle. The event was part of the network’s Friday-night lineup of live MMA and pro boxing events.

FS1’s live Ultimate Fighting Championship telecasts in 2015 generated 15% of the network’s viewing audience, while comprising just 12% of its programming schedule, according to Crakes. In 2015, FS1’s 26 live UFC events in primetime averaged 1 million total viewers.

So far this year, four live UFC events on FS1 have averaged nearly 1 million viewers. The network is set to air live coverage of the preliminary bouts for UFC’s 12 pay-per-view events, as well as 15 additional live UFC fight cards.

“All of the network’s UFC programming is trending up year to year,” Crakes said. “It really became a phenomenon — it provides a lot of high-quality content.”

Ring sports — especially pro wrestling and MMA — draw the younger viewers who are tuning out of traditional TV programming more often than not, UFC executive vice president and chief content officer Marshall Zelaznik added.

The median age of UFC’s viewer audience is 37.8 years, which skews younger than that of the major U.S. professional sports leagues by 4.8 to 12.1 years, according to the company.

Meanwhile, boxing is gearing up to build on arguably its most successful year ever, from a pay-per-view revenue and ratings standpoint. HBO has already slated two PPV fights in 2016, the April 9 Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley Jr. fight and the May 7 Canelo Alvarez-Amir Kahn bout. It hopes to ride the coattails of last May’s record-setting Floyd Mayweather- Manny Pacquiao event — which generated more than $400 million in PPV revenues — as well as last November’s Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez bout, which drew nearly 1 million PPV buys.

RELATED:HBO's Nelson Looks to Pack a Punch in ’16

A WINNING SEASON

The mixed martial arts and pro wrestling categories are also coming off strong 2015 PPV campaigns, and are looking ahead to big revenue and buy returns this year, Mark Boccardi, In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development, said.

“Ring sports are by nature cyclical, but we’re at a point now where everything has been clicking for these distributors on PPV,” Boccardi said. “UFC had an incredible bounceback year; boxing had its best year ever, due mostly to Mayweather-Pacquiao; and with WWE we still do significant buys for those customers that aren’t subscribing to [the WWE Network over-the-top service, which carries that company’s PPV events].”

As the TV marketplace continues to evolve, network executives said, live ring sports will remain a valuable programming asset for networks looking for a relatively low-cost sports offering — compared with the billion-dollar rights fees commanded by pro sports leagues — that will deliver a unique and loyal audience.

“The value of having a cost-effective sport in today’s sports marketplace can’t be overstated,” said Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president of Showtime Sports, which will mark its 30th year of championship boxing coverage in 2016. “We all know where the industry trend is going in terms of rights fees, so it seems like many programmers have discovered a relatively low-cost barrier to entrytype of sports programming.”

Indeed, networks like AXS TV have relied on live ring sports programming to help build their brand with would-be affilliates and viewers. The Mark Cuban-owned entertainment service has been offering live MMA, boxing and wrestling events on Friday nights for more than a decade.

This year, the network will air 42 live ring sports events, AXS TV Fights CEO Andrew Simon said. The immediacy of the events, and the need to watch them as they’re happening, have helped put the network on the map.

“In today’s television world, we don’t know many people who are watching TV in real time outside of sports,” Simon said. “It’s sports that you have to watch live. You do not want to hear that Holly Holm beat Ronda Rousey and then watch a replay of the fight — you want to watch that live and then be able to join in the social engagement afterwards.”

Even pro wrestling, a heavily scripted but still action-infused genre, has benefited from providing live content to its legion of fans. USA Network continues to draw more than 4 million viewers a week for its weekly, live WWE Monday Night Raw series, which is now in its 23rd year.

The live Raw telecasts allow WWE fans to engage with must-see television every week, while affording USA Network an opportunity to showcase its other programming to pro wrestling’s loyal and committed viewer base, NBCUniversal Entertainment Networks president Chris McCumber said.

“As the most-watched regularly scheduled year-round program on cable, Monday Night Raw is an extremely valuable franchise, with three hours of live, high-octane entertainment airing on USA every Monday night, 52 weeks a year to a massive, passionate, loyal and engaged fanbase,” McCumber said in a statement.

Added WWE chief revenue and marketing officer Michelle Wilson: “While the TV landscape continues to evolve, live, DVR-proof programming remains extremely valuable to both our partners and fans. Live programming also serves as the core of engagement across digital and social platforms and drives the conversation all week long, 24/7.”

SOCIAL-MEDIA STRENGTH

Live content is also a major driver of socialmedia action. Of the 10 most-discussed TV shows on Twitter in 2015, six were live sports telecasts, according to Nielsen.

“It boosts social traffic because people are talking to each other about what they’ve seen on the live telecast,” Spike president Kevin Kay said. “If you have a great knockout or great submission, the first thing that happens is somebody says, ‘Did you see that?’ and that drives viewership and conversation on social and drives up traffic during the fight and after the fight.”

Several networks are working toward making sure viewers can see those big knockouts through technological enhancements like 4K and virtual reality.

UFC will look in the near future to implement virtual reality and 4K-enhanced video for live events offered on its Fight Pass OTT service, UFC’s Zelaznik said.

The subscription-based Fight Pass will offer live coverage of the undercard fights for UFC’s more than 41 live events, as well as more than 110 shows for non-UFC MMA events.

“We think we can provide more value to Fight Pass subscribers and continue to experiment with the new technologies,” he said. “What we can deliver digitally is really high-quality clarity.”

Executives from FS1, AXS TV and Showtime also confirmed experimentation with either or both 4K and virtual reality for their live ring-sports events.

“Virtual reality provides some real opportunities because of its ability to immerse people at home to the experience,” FS1’s Crakes said. “We always hear from our fans that they want the telecast to bring them closer to the event, and virtual reality — if we can make it work inside the home — has that potential. To be able to give everybody a ringside seat is pretty appealing.”

Even more distributors are getting into the live sports ring. Pop will offer its first live TNA Impact Wrestling telecast on March 15. It launched the pro-wrestling series, which had previously aired on Spike TV and later Destination America, in January.

“Impact Wrestling on Pop is must-watch appointment television that delivers a consistent, loyal audience every Tuesday night,” Pop president Brad Schwartz said. “It is 52 weeks a year of original content, including many weeks that are live, like the upcoming live event on March 13.”

El Rey Network may also look to develop live pro wrestling shows based on of its original wrestling series Lucha Underground, according Eric Van Wagenen, showrunner and executive producer for the Mark Burnett-produced reality series.

The sophomore series, which features Mexican pro wrestling content, deliberately does not market or promote episode highlights in advance of its premiere in an effort to replicate the excitement and must-see appeal of a live wrestling telecast.

“It’s absolutely conceivable that we would get to a point of offering a live event,” Wagenen said. “We’re taking a measured approach. The advantage of shooting a season is that it gives us an off-season — we could conceivably supplement the series with live events during that time.”

Also lacing up its live-event gloves is digital company Flipps Media, which earlier this month launched the FITE TV app offering select PPV ring sports events via mobile devices.

Just this past weekend, the service offered six live PPV combat sports events, including Ring of Honor professional wrestling and World Armwrestling Championship events that were also distributed by In Demand, DirecTV and Dish Network.

The FITE TV app can be downloaded from iTunes or Google Play, and provides users the option of streaming a live show on a phone or connecting directly to a Smart TV, FITE senior vice president of marketing Michael Weber said.

Along with live PPV programming, the service has deals to distribute free, ad-supported VOD combat sports content.

OTT IN THE RING

“You can’t be in this business doing live event PPV programming and not look for alternatives to cable and satellite,” Weber said, adding that the company is hoping to secure rights deal with other PPV event distributors.

“We all know cable subscriber numbers are shrinking every year, so this makes sense for all the programmers to be looking at new ways to deliver programming,” Weber added. “We’re not trying to replace cable, we want to supplement it.”

With networks and distributors offering content on multiple platforms, it looks like live sports programming will continue to pack a major punch in the television marketplace for several more rounds.

“There’s more content on cable and over-the-air broadcast networks than ever before,” FS1’s Crakes said. “I’m bullish on ring sports because I believe they are the cornerstone of live sports programming.”

The Sept. 12 Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Andre Berto fight could be bittersweet for pay-per-view distributors, as Mayweather, the category’s biggest draw, is expected to retire after the event.

While the bout for the WBC and WBA welterweight titles could draw as many as 1 million buys, according to fight distributor Showtime, the 38-yearold Mayweather last Wednesday (Sept. 2) reiterated to reporters his plans to retire after the fight during a conference call to promote the event. This week, promoters Showtime and CBS opened up a pay streaming option to add another option for potential buyers -- an unusual move for a big PPV fight.

If Mayweather does walk away from the ring after battling the 31-year-old Berto at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, he would do so as the most lucrative draw in the history of the PPV category.

Mayweather led all athletes and entertainers in generating more than $870 million in PPV revenues, according to Forbes. That was before his record-setting May 2 fight against Manny Pacquiao, which generated more than $400 million in PPV revenue.

“While I will leave it up to others to debate Floyd’s position among the all-time greatest boxers, I can say he is undoubtedly the all-time PPV king,” Mark Boccardi, In Demand’s senior vice president of programming and business development, said.

PPV LEGACY ASSURED

Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza has said that Saturday’s Mayweather-Berto event — which will retail for a suggested $64.95 — could draw in excess of 1 million buys, despite the relatively unknown status of former welterweight champion Berto. Espinoza said he doesn’t expect the fight to come anywhere close to the more than record 4.4 million buys generated by Mayweather-Pacquiao, though.

What Espinoza said he doesn’t have to predict is Mayweather’s legacy in the sport and the PPV category. “I don’t think that there is any question that Floyd Mayweather is the greatest PPV draw ever,” Espinoza said.

“He’s surpassed 2 million PPV buys three times,” the Showtime executive added, referring to Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya in 2007, Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez in 2013 and Mayweather-Pacquiao this year. “No other fighter has done it more than once,” Espinoza said. “He’s really separated himself from any other attraction.”

Mayweather’s appeal as a PPV draw extended beyond his in-ring exploits, Boccardi said. The fighter’s social-media appeal — Mayweather has millions of Twitter followers — as well as his appearances in entertainment-based vehicles from Dancing With the Stars to the WWE’s Wrestlemania have helped Mayweather create a brand that has transcended boxing.

“Not only is he incredibly gifted in the ring, but he’s also the sport of boxing’s first superstar in the Internet/reality-TV generation — he’s created another aura outside the ring because of the generation that we live in,” Boccardi said. “He’s a boxer that to some people is more famous for being a character on TV than a fighter, but he backs it up by being so talented in the ring.”

While Mayweather has set the template for being a successful PPV event draw, Boccardi said it won’t be easy for other up-and-coming fighters to replicate Mayweather’s success both in and out of the ring.

“The way he did it worked well with his personality, but it’s not going to work for everyone,” Boccardi said. “The old saying [that] you can’t fit a square peg into a round hole holds true here — you can’t take a guy that might be gifted in the ring but is shy and not confrontational and try to create another Mayweather.”

COULD HE ‘UNRETIRE?’

Of course, there is the potential that the industry will see Mayweather in the ring again after the Berto fight. Mayweather has retired and unretired in the past, and with a chance to build a 2016 mega PPV event around breaking legendary heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 mark in his next fight — assuming he gets by Berto — industry observers say it’s a good bet we’ll see Mayweather back in the ring.

Even Espinoza said Showtime would likely look to coax the undefeated champion back for one more go-round. Saturday’s Mayweather-Berto fight is the last bout in a six-fight PPV deal between Mayweather and Showtime.

“There’s a good amount of disbelief about Mayweather’s plans to retire, largely because he’s still operating at such a high level,” Espinoza said. “But he’s 19 years in, and that’s a long time to be a fighter, so I understand the disbelief, but I also hear in Floyd’s voice that he’s ready to call it a career.

“Having said all of that, we’re going to try, but for the time being he has said to us, don’t call me, I’ll call you for the foreseeable future.”