While he may have fought just once under the UFC banner thus far, Cung Le (@CungLe185) scored himself two quarterly Twitter bonuses and a cool $10,000.
Le was awarded $5,000 awards in the "most followers" and "biggest percentage growth in followers" categories during the company's most-recent quarterly contest.
UFC officials today announced the bonuses.
In 2011, Zuffa officials rolled out the bonus program to all UFC and Strikeforce fighters. UFC president Dana White long has been a supporter of the social-media movement and currently boasts nearly 1.9 million Twitter followers.
Other winners in the "most followers" category included UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (@SpiderAnderson), UFC heayweight champion Junior Dos Santos (@Junior_Cigano) and heavyweight contender Brendan Schaub (@BrendanSchaub).
Additional winners in the "biggest percentage growth in followers" category included Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (@MinotauroMMA), Roy Nelson (@RoyNelsonMMA) and UFC on FUEL TV 1 headliner Jake Ellenberger (@EllenbergerMMA).
In the "most creative" category, Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA), Joseph Benavidez (@JoeB135), Duane "Bang" Ludwig (@DUANEBANGCOM) and Pat Barry (@HypeOrDie) each scored $5,000 awards.
For the purpose of the UFC's Twitter bonuses, all UFC and Strikeforce fighters are divided into four separate categories based on the number of followers they have at the beginning of the scoring period.
While Twitter is one of the hottest social-media platforms in the world, White and the UFC's enthusiastic embrace of the technology has made it a must-have for MMA fans. White and his fighters often interact directly with fans on Twitter through personal messages, news updates and ticket and product giveaways.
Source: Former Strikeforce champ Cung Le scores $10K in Zuffa's latest Twitter bonus