UFC superstar Ronda Rousey’s return to the octagon in tonight’s UFC 207 pay-per-view event will cap off what has easily been one of the mixed martial arts franchise’s most lucrative PPV campaigns ever.

While the company has not officially released PPV buy numbers for its 2016 events, industry observers say the performance of the MMA organization’s landmark UFC 200 event in July, its November UFC 205 event featuring Colin McGregor – which also served as the first UFC event held in New York’s Madison Square Garden – as well as the predicted strong PPV revenue and buy returns from tonight’s event will certainly push the UFC past boxing as the king of the PPV ring in 2016.

The PPV boxing category delivered a weak revenue jab to distributors this year compared to the knockout punch the category landed in 2015, bolstered by the record-setting Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight. Not even the presence of two Pacquiao PPV fights in 2016 could lift the fortunes of a category in transition after losing its most lucrative draw in Mayweather to retirement.

Fighters headlining PPV boxing cards in 2016 like Canelo Alvarez, Andre Ward, Sergey Kovalev and Terrance Crawford are still building awareness and appeal with boxing fans and could create some buzzworthy PPV bouts in 2017, but it will take some time before the category can generate PPV revenue and buys in the neighborhood of Pacquiao-Mayweather.

HBO could offer as many as three PPV boxing events in the first half of 2017 including a scheduled Feb. 25 Miguel Cotto-James Kirkland bout and a March 18 Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Jacobs championship fight card that will receive some fanfare, but will be hard pressed to reach the category’s gold standard of 1 million PPV buys. A potential Alvarez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr fight in May could also generate some decent noise and buys for the category among hard core fight fans, but could be a tough sell to casual sports fans.

Meanwhile, the UFC will look to build on its big 2016 PPV performance with the promise of a slew of PPV events next year featuring the organization’s top fighters, beginning in February with its UFC 208 event in New York. Whether Rousey will join the UFC’s roster of 2017 PPV headliners remains to be seen, but tonight’s card closes a successful 2016 PPV campaign for the organization and serves as a strong lead-in to what is expected to be another knockout PPV year for the UFC in 2017.

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.”

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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.

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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.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship remains confident of future ratings and pay-per-view wins despite having its highest-profile fighters hit the canvas with recent losses.

The mixed martial arts franchise’s March 5 UFC 196 pay-per-view event saw two of the UFC’s biggest draws — Conor McGregor and Holly Holm — suffer surprising defeats in the main and co-main events.

Those followed Holm’s November upset win over Ronda Rousey, arguably the organization’s most popular fighter.

UFC would not disclose PPV buys for UFC 196’s McGregor-Nate Diaz and Holm-Miesha Tate event. But the brash McGregor, who was on the Feb. 29 cover of Sports Illustrated, and Holm, who had been lined up for a lucrative rematch with Rousey, were big draws for FS1 content surrounding the event.

"UFC 196 was a great event and the results are a prime example that as a global brand, UFC showcases the best combat athletes in the world where anything can happen," UFC executive vice president and chief content officer Marshall Zelaznik said.

FS1’s March 5 live telecast of UFC 196 preliminary fights drew 1.8 million viewers, a network record for UFC PPV preliminary fight telecasts. And the early evening UFC 196 pre-fight show, with undercard bouts prior to the main PPV fights, drew 767,000 viewers, a record for that category.

Fox Sports head of business operations David Nathanson said the unpredictability of UFC bouts help build awareness for future live fights, regardless of whether or not the biggest stars win.

“The recent losses of Rousey, McGregor and Holm actually create more interesting storylines and prove that no one is infallible, and more than ever people will want to tune in to see how these stars pick themselves up and respond to their loss,” Nathanson said.

“The proof will be in the octagon,” he said, “and the UFC and FS1 will benefit as these narratives evolve.”

UFC president Dana White told ESPN Radio that McGregor could fight next in July on the UFC 200 card. White also said Rousey’s comeback fight could be against Tate instead of Holm, although it’s unclear when that event would take place.

Bas Rutten, co-host of AXS TV’s weekly mixed-martial- arts news show Inside MMA, said that unlike boxing, where a loss could devalue the box-office appeal of a fighter, mixed martial arts fighters — because of the various ways to stop an opponent — can better absorb losses and still retain their appeal to fans.

“There are way more ways to lose in mixed martial arts, which is why [fighter] records are much different in MMA,” Rutten said. “I think people want to see these guys come back, particularly Conor McGregor.”

UFC officials have said that 2015 was one of its best years ever in terms of PPV buys and revenue, and Zelaznik added UFC 196 has help set the stage for several big PPV events in the near future.

“The results from [UFC 196] will make our athletes and pay-per-views even more compelling," Zelaznik said. "UFC 196 set the tone for an exciting 2016 where UFC will be unstoppable leading into our landmark UFC 200 event in July.”

In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development Mark Boccardi said he thinks UFC can continue to deliver strong PPV buys despite the losses by Rousey and now McGregor and Holm.

“It’s a fight sport, and people lose,” Boccardi said. “What people respond to in this genre are the people who take on the biggest and best matchups. There’s no doubt that Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey are the two most marketable stars right now for the UFC, so there’s no doubt that whomever their opponents are, their next fights will still be a very big PPV event.”

The UFC’s next PPV event comes on April 23 and features a rematch between UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and former champion Jon Jones.

In 2011, website TMZ quoted Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White as saying that the burgeoning mixed martial arts outfit would never allow women fighters to fight in its famed octagon.

Fast forward to today, and arguably the organization’s most popular and well-known fighter is Ronda Rousey, a 28-yearold woman who has taken the UFC and sports media by storm since she burst on the scene in 2012. She has changed the face of MMA while helping the company pin down impressive performances both inside the octagon and within the overall media arena.

“Ronda Rousey is the most popular athlete UFC has ever had — her popularity both inside and outside of the octagon has increased UFC’s appeal exponentially,” UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told Multichannel News.

A HIT EVEN AT 1:30 A.M.

One only has to look at last month’s UFC 193 pay-per-view event to see the broad appeal of Rousey. While she lost her Nov. 14 UFC women’s bantamweight title fight to Holly Holm in a huge upset, the buildup and anticipation of that event rivaled any in the 14 years of the Zuffa LLC-owned UFC era and helped the show deliver a reported more than 1 million PPV buys.

Even in defeat, Rousey is a ratings winner. FS1’s Nov. 15 UFC 193 post-fight show drew nearly 500,000 viewers for a 1:30 a.m. ET telecast — a network record for a UFC after-event show and more than the 330,000 viewers FS1 averaged on a total-day basis in October.

Industry observers said much of UFC’s current PPV and TV momentum can be attributed to Rousey, who has become as well-known outside the UFC through her numerous TV and movie appearances as she is inside the octagon for her winning prowess and devastating armbar submission hold.

“There are certain people who just have it,” Glenn Jacobs, senior coordinating producer for ESPN’s SportsCenter, said. “She appeals to a number of people on a number of different fan bases on several levels. She’s tremendously compelling, whether she’s in the ring fighting or appearing at a public event.”

Her knockout loss to Holm notwithstanding, Rousey — the recipient of Multichannel News’s female Athlete of the Year Award — has become arguably the most well-known woman athlete today. Over the last 12 months Rousey has become a media darling, appearing in everything from video games (UFC 2) to TV (WWE’s WrestleMania 31) to movies (Furious 7 and Entourage). She is set to star in MGM’s reboot of the 1989 movie drama Road House in the lead role made famous by the late Patrick Swayze.

“She has the skills, she has the looks and she has a way of presenting herself in front of a camera,” Bas Rutten, co-host of AXS TV’s weekly mixed-martial-arts news show Inside MMA, said. “Combine that with the skill to destroy opponents in the cage and you have a complete package.”

Her broad appeal is not lost on UFC. The organization featured Rousey fights as the main event in three of its 11 pay-per-view cards this year. Only UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier appeared in as many main events.

“Not only has she influenced fight fans, women and young girls around the world, she also transcends mainstream pop culture and brings in a new demographic of fans to watch our events and engage with our brand,” UFC’s Fertitta said.

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ESPN on Oct. 7 had Rousey host its 6 p.m. SportsCenter show — the first female athlete ever to do so. Jacobs said that Rousey’s SportsCenter appearance attracted an extremely high level of buzz across social-media platforms.

“Ronda is one of those people who rates — we’re not just asking anyone to come in and host SportsCenter,” ESPN’s Jacobs said. “We found Ronda Rousey content works across all of our platforms — on TV, on digital, and on social media — because she is so compelling and appeals to so many people.”

Indeed, on social media Rousey has punched up more than 2 million Twitter followers and more than 9.7 million likes on Facebook, more than popular current male UFC champions Cormier and Conor McGregor.

But it’s in the octagon where Rousey’s rise to stardom began. Rousey — who turned pro in 2011 after becoming the first U.S. woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing — became a fighting sensation known for taking out her opponents in short order. She initially appeared as UFC’s first female fighter in 2013 and quickly won her initial bouts — five within the first round and two within 20 seconds — before her loss to Holm.

“Don’t all athletes who break into great celebrity start with winning?” Fox Sports president and chief operating officer Eric Shanks said. “It’s pretty undeniable that Ronda walked all over anyone that was in the weight class until her last fight. The incredible run that she had is the foundation for the celebrity that she is.”

ESPN’s Jacobs added that Rousey doesn’t get enough credit for her determination in breaking into what once was a male-dominated mixed martial arts sport.

“Ronda is the reason why there are women fighters in the UFC,” he said. “She’s essentially built women’s MMA in the UFC and I think she deserves a lot of credit for that.”

Even Holm gave Rousey props for propelling mixed martial arts and women’s fighting to unprecedented heights in an interview with TMZ Sports two days after her knockout win over the former champion.

“Ronda has been a very dominant champ and has taken the sport to new levels,” she told TMZ. “This fight wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t accomplish what she accomplished.”

Her domination in the octagon turned into ratings gold for the UFC and Fox Sports in 2015. Two of FS1’s four most watched UFC PPV preliminary telecasts of all time were for 2015 events in which Rousey was the PPV headliner, each averaging more than 1.3 million viewers, according to Fox.

Online, Rousey accounted for 12.5 million page views on FoxSports.com over the last four months. In addition, Rousey drove 59% of the site’s 21.4 million page views for UFC editorial in the six months leading up to the Nov. 14 Rousey-Holm fight.

“It’s even more impressive when you consider it was Dana who said women would never fight in the UFC,” Shanks said. “Now, their biggest star is a woman in a year that has been arguably been one of the greatest in women’s sports.”

Rousey’s tough background — she has been very open about being raised by a single mother after her father committed suicide — has helped make her popular among non-MMA fans, he added.

“When athletes do that it makes them more human because everyone has their struggles, and Ronda has the platform speak up about it and probably help a lot of other young women and girls through it,” Shanks said.

HOPING FOR A SEQUEL

Rousey would continue to rate with fans despite her recent loss, Shanks said. While it’s unclear if and when Rousey will return to the octagon, he said that sports fans love comeback stories and Rousey’s will be a compelling one that should ultimately win her more fans.

“It’s hard to wear the crown of invincibility … there were a lot of people who fell off the Ronda bandwagon after the loss,” Shanks said. “Unlike a lot of movies, sequels in MMA and combat sports usually outdraw the first edition, so this sequel undoubtedly will be bigger than the first. I think that will be a driving force with Ronda to get ready to become champion again.”

Added ESPN’s Jacobs: “People love a redemption story. Her story has changed: she used to be on a ‘she’s so dominant and can’t be touched’ track. Now she has the chance to be on the ‘coming back and facing adversity’ track — I still think that is a compelling track to be on.”

Lead-in programming ahead of the UFC 190 main event -- in which Ronda Rousey knocked out her opponent, Bethe Correia, in 34 seconds (video highlights) -- peaked at 1.6 million viewers on Fox Sports 1 on Saturday (Aug. 1), making it the most-viewed program among ad-supported cable sports networks in primetime, Fox Sports said. The performance was the third-best ever for pre-pay-per-view event fare on FS1, riding a wave of interest in Rousey.

The blonde Rousey has become a star outside of her mixed-martial-arts fame. As this blog notes, she's made movie appearances (Furious 7, the Entourage movie), has been on a recent cover of Sports Illustrated and made headlines at the ESPY Awards. After winning an ESPY as best fighter, in a field that included PPV boxing titan Floyd Mayweather, she jabbed at Mayweather, who has a history of domestic violence, saying she wondered "how Floyd feels being beat by a woman for once."  

Fox said that Saturday night’s UFC preliminary bouts (8-10 p.m. PM ET) averaged 1,322,000 viewers before peaking at 1,599,000 viewers (9:15-9:30 p.m. ET). That was 13% better on a household rating basis (1.04 vs. 0.92) and 10% better on an average audience basis (vs. 1,205,000) compared with the preliminary matches on FS1 before Rousey’s last main event PPV card (Feb. 28). That time she defeated challenger Cat Zingano at UFC 184 in 14 seconds.    

The Fox Sports 1 UFC 190 pre-fight show on Saturday (7-8 p.m. ET) drew 518,000 viewers, making it the third most-watched PPV prefight yet on the network, which converted from Speed in August 2013. 

After Rousey dispatched Correia in their bantamweight title fight, the FS1 UFC 190 post-fight show (1:42-2:42 a.m. ET) attracted 438,000 viewers, making it the second most-watched UFC 190 post-fight show yet on FS1.

On Friday, a repeat of UFC Main Event: UFC 168 Rousey Vs Tate Friday night (9-10 p.m. ET) had 388,000 viewers, a record for the program on FS1.  The 10 p.m. Friday night telecast of a special edition of UFC Tonight focusing on Rousey had 396,000 viewers, the most viewers yet for an airing of UFC Tonight, all according to FS1.

Image via UFC.com.

HBO’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel has made its recent segment with UFC women’s champion Ronda Rousey available online in its entirety.

The Rousey interview, which aired last night on sports magazine show, marks the first time the series has offered a full segment from the series to non HBO subscribers, according to network officials.

The monthly Real Sports With Bryant Gumbelseries is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.