I've monetized my own YouTube channel by offering online courses.

With a very small channel I've seen some quick revenues.

My stats:
- 12 videos
- 150,000 views approx.
- 2100 subscribers

Revenue:
- on YouTube = $0
- from online courses sold through YouTube - $10k+ per month

If you're interested I put together a series of blog posts about how to do this here:
http://blog.thinkific.com/?s=youtube

I've seen plenty of others do this as well, even with channels or subjects you wouldn't think would lend themselves to "education". Look for things your audience would be interested in learning - for you there's some great options from - MMA training, to how to report on MMA. You could even partner with guys like this: http://mmauniversity.thinkific.com/