UFC to Pay Fighters for Twitter Usage

News

Strikeforce and UFC fighters will now receive compensation for something that many other professional sports organizations fine their players for: using Twitter.

UFC officials reported to MMA Fighting that UFC President Dana White at the UFC Fighter Summit that all contracted fighters would be receiving bonuses for adding followers on the service, as well as crafting creative messages.

Here’s how the new Twitter bonus initiative will work:

Starting June 1, UFC and Strikeforce fighters will be divided into four categories, based on how many Twitter followers they currently have. At the end of each quarter, three fighters from each category will be awarded a $5,000 bonus. The three winners will be based on who has gained the most followers since the start of the quarter, who gained the highest percentage of new followers and who wrote the most creative tweets. White will be the judge of the last category.

At the conclusion of a full calendar year, the UFC will end up paying $240,000 a year to its fighters for their Twitter usage.

The focus of this week’s UFC Fighter Summit saw seminars regarding Zuffa’s new insurance coverage, taxes, gambling and social media.

An Inside Pulse "original", SMS is one of the founding members of Inside Pulse and serves as the Chief Marketing Officer on the Executive Board. Smith is a fan of mixed martial arts and runs two sections of IP as Editor in Chief, RadioExile.com and InsideFights.com. Having covered music festivals around the world as well as conducting interviews with top-class professional wrestlers and musicians, he switched gears from music coverage at Radio Exile to MMA after the first The Ultimate Fighter Finale. He resides with his wife in New York City.