Mike Chiappetta • E-mail

Just one month after UFC President Dana White predicted UFC 91's Couture-Lesnar megafight would break the company record for pay-per-view buys (it hasn't yet officially), he now says that December's UFC 92 was an even bigger winner.

"I don't want to get into numbers too much—that's our policy. But it crushed it. I'll say this: The Christmas show crushed the Lesnar fight by 150,000-175,000 buys,” White said in an interview with ESPN the Magazine.

If that is the case, UFC 92 would become the biggest PPV in MMA history, with close to 1.2 million buys. Boxing's biggest PPV of '08 was the Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao fight, which drew 1.25 million. In addition, UFC would finish '08 with almost $300 million in pay-per-view revenue, making it the most lucrative year for any company in PPV history.

In the past, boxing's biggest event of the year would consistently crush UFC's biggest offering, but with De La Hoya likely hanging up his gloves, UFC will likely dominate PPV completely in '09 and possibly beyond.

Time for an MMA brain-dump of news and notes...

Mir-Lesnar timeframe
The upcoming and much-awaited Brock Lesnar-Frank Mir UFC heavyweight title fight is more likely to take place during the middle of the year in Las Vegas than during the rumored April event.

Though no dates have been offered, the Mir camp has a strong preference for keeping the fight in Las Vegas, which is Mir's hometown and often boasts larger gates than UFC's road shows.

Right now UFC 97 is expected to take place in April in Montreal. After Jan. 31’s event at the MGM Grand, the UFC does not have another Las Vegas event scheduled, though they are tentatively looking at a May 23 date. That could be the one to host Lesnar-Mir.

Roach says Arlovski to stomp Fedor
Famed boxing trainer Freddie Roach has painted his newest charge Andrei Arlovski into a corner by essentially insulting Fedor Emelianenko in the leadup to their Jan. 24 Affliction fight.

When recently asked to evaluate Emelianenko's striking, Roach said, "It is easy for me to emulate his moves because he is predictable. He sucks at boxing. He can't box. He can punch, but he can't box."

Video   MMA Fight Weekly: Dream Fights Tiffany and Mike take a look at the matchups we want to see in 2009. NBC Sports

As a three-time trainer of the year and the man who most recently led Manny Pacquiao past Oscar De La Hoya, Roach has earned his opinion but likely should have chosen his words more carefully. After all, the two are not squaring off in a boxing match, they're fighting MMA. Emelianenko has had an unorthodox striking style for his entire career, and it's worked pretty well for him so far. MMA is much more multi-layered than boxing, so foot positioning is often compromised and striking can look awkward as a result.

We’ll see if Arlovski benefits from Roach’s tutelage on Jan. 24.

Huerta leaving UFC
UFC lightweight star Roger Huerta recently told Sherdog.com that he would not re-sign with the UFC as he changes his focus to acting and modeling in '09. Huerta does have one fight left on his current deal, which he says he will honor before leaving.

I've had the chance to speak with Huerta on numerous occasions and he is a genuinely nice person who quite literally fought his way to success. He was essentially abandoned by his parents as a child, was homeless for a stretch and was set up to become another statistic. But he always valued school and dreamed of making something of himself to prove his value to the parents that abandoned him.

The crazy thing is many fans are angry at him for leaving.

The man lifted himself up from a horrible childhood that would have resulted in jail, drugs or gangs for most, and became a very successful fighter, then used that to open doors to a possible acting career.

That's living the American dream, in my opinion, and something to be celebrated.

WAMMA issues
I get emails asking me about my thoughts on WAMMA from time to time, so here is my two cents...

My issue with WAMMA right now is that even by its own rankings, the UFC has more top-level talent than all other worldwide leagues combined. So by definition, they are giving out B-level belts. Certainly there are individual fighters in non-UFC leagues that can compete and even beat UFC's best – Emelianenko is more than capable – but the list is too short to consider.

I do give WAMMA credit for not handing out their belts immediately. They are showing restraint by truly trying to crown the best non-UFC fighters (they've crowned heavyweight Emelianenko and lightweight Shinya Aoki) but the depth of worldwide MMA at top levels makes it a difficult long-term proposition.

For example, Affliction has already said that the Josh Barnett-Gilbert Yvel winner will face the Emelianenko-Arlovski winner for the title. That essentially means that Yvel is in a No. 1 contenders match despite the fact that WAMMA does not have him ranked in the heavyweight top 10, nor in the “Also receiving votes” section. 

Fan voting awards results
The following are the results of NBCSports.com’s “Best of 2008” polls as voted on by our readers…

Fighter of the Year
Winner: Rashad Evans 40%
Runner-up: Anderson Silva, 35%

Fight of the Year
Winner: Forrest Griffin vs. Rampage Jackson, UFC 86, 42%
Runner-up: Jon Fitch vs. Georges St. Pierre, UFC 87, 22%

Knockout of the Year
Winner: Rashad Evans over Chuck Liddell, 59%
Runner-up: Rampage Jackson over Wanderlei Silva, 24%

Submission of the Year
Winner: Nate Diaz triangle sub vs. Kurt Pellegrino, 37%
Runner-up: Fedor Emelianenko rear naked choke vs. Tim Sylvia, 32%

Upset of the Year
Winner: Mike Brown def. Urijah Faber, 52%
Runner-up: Forrest Griffin def. Rampage Jackson, 39%

Breakout star of the Year
Winner: Brock Lesnar, 68%
Runner-up: Gina Carano, 28%

News story of the Year
Winner: Brock Lesnar wins heavyweight title, 44%
Runner-up: Rise & Fall of EliteXC: 30%

Personality of the Year
Winner: Gina Carano 31%
Runner-up: Dana White 24%