1:20 PM EST

www.wrestlingnewsdesk.com reporter Anna Elizabeth Anderson penned an excellent article forTHE POST CHRONICLEon UFC 79 selling out, and also on Brock Lesnar's upcoming UFC debut against former champion Frank Mir. You can read the entire article, which includes quotes from our own Arturo Collozo Jr. here:http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212121408.shtml.
 
The article states the following:
 
 
UFC 79 Sells Out, But All Eyes Are On Brock Lesnar Superbowl Debut

The Ultimate Fighting Championship announced on Monday that UFC 79: NEMESIS, which will take place this Saturday Night, December 29 at the Mandalay Event Center in Las Vegas, is completely sold out.

The pay per view event features two huge main events that will pit Matt Hughes against Georges St-Pierre for the interim Welterweight Championship in the third of their split series of matches, while UFC Legend and former legend Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell  battles against his Pride counterpart Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva.

According to www.mmanewsdesk.com, Hughes was originally scheduled to step into the Octagon against fellow "The Ultimate Fighter" coach Matt Serra, but Serra had to back out of the event due to a serious back injury.

UFC President Dana White put a positive spin on the situation, stating "Obviously, the loss of Matt Serra was brutal, but the great thing about the UFC is that we can put together great fights like Hughes vs St. Pierre at a moment’s notice and bounce right back. I have the utmost respect for both Hughes and St. Pierre for stepping up for this fight. The winner is going to face off next year against Matt Serra for the undisputed title."

With the live event sold out, UFC has opened up a closed-circuit feed at the Mandalay Bay Hotel's Ballroom. Meanwhile, UFC also took the extraordinary measure of renting out New York City's world famous Madison Square Garden for a closed-circuit broadcast, but despite live appearances from hugely popular UFC stars like Forest Griffin, the live feed into MSG has yet to break 1,000 tickets sold.

"The closed-circuit experiment at Madison Square Garden was a huge mistake," notedwww.mmanewsdesk.comeditor Arturo Collozo Jr. "and UFC is going to have to address its lack of hard-hitting television hype going into this event."

UFC closes 2007 in an interesting position. Boxing received a huge boost this year with the rise to superstardom of Floyd Mayweather, thanks to the 24/7 series built to promote Mayweather's match against Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya. The record-smashing pay per view made Mayweather boxing's biggest star. But lightning did not exactly strike twice. Mayweather's December 8th fight against UK-favorite Ricky Hatton, which was promoted by the second 24/7 series, drew a somewhat disappointing 850,000 pay per view buys.

While no other Mayweather bout besides the De La Hoya fight ever came even close to being in that range, it shows that there's still work to be done.

But the 24/7 series seems to have become the gold standard of promotion in the sports world. UFC has nothing like it. "This week's promotion for Liddell vs Silva, a dream match 5 years in the making, can only be labeled weak," MMA News Desk's Collozo stated, "the biggest UFC event on Spike this week is the astonishing fact they are re-airing the Randy Couture vs Tim Sylvia match for some reason."

UFC needs to revamp the way it promotes its big matches on television, as they have become stuck in a formula that boxing has now surpassed. Both Liddell and Silva have great stories to tell going into this fight.

Liddell was the most popular fighter in UFC, with a seven-fight winning streak that got stopped short when Quinton "Rampage" Jackson knocked him out in the 1st round for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title. Then Liddell lost a decision against "The Dean of Mean" Keith Jardine, so this is a must-win match for Liddell.

But the same can be said for Silva, who moved from the legendary Chute Boxe camp in Brazil to Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas where he has been training with controversial Randy "I have quit UFC" Couture. And Silva is also coming off two big losses, having been knocked out in his last two fights by Mirko Cro Cop and Dan Henderson.

But the fight UFC fans seem most interested in is Brock Lesnar's UFC debut on February 2nd against former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir. A strong promotion will be needed for that match, as Lesnar is NCAA Wrestling Champion whose fame comes not from Mixed Martial Arts but from his short but spectacular run with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promotion.

"Lesnar, as a personality on televison, will be very interesting, because he had the most momentum when he had Paul Heyman as his spokesman," noted Collozo, "Heyman was the Dana White of the Original ECW wrestling promotion, and then formed one of the great wrestler-manager on-air duos with Lesnar in 2002."

Within months of his debut, Lesnar was named King Of The Ring, crushed Hulk Hogan in a memorable television match, and defeated Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for the Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship at the promotion's annual Summer Slam event. But in the real world of UFC, Lesnar will need to do his own talking, which was never his strong suit.

"Lesnar vs Mir would be a great match for UFC to reinvent their promotional campaigns around," Collozo stated, "because they've been doing the same type of promotion for years now, and it's time for an update."

Plus, Liddell vs Silva is not even being hyped by UFC as the main event. That distinction goes to Hughes vs St. Pierre. "UFC needs top line stars," Collozo concluded, "they need people who can capture the public's interest."