Yahoo Sport 
While NFL and MLB fear Twitter, UFC will pay year-end bonuses for Twit-beasts
When a league gets incredibly corporate or is run by a fossil, you'd expect there to be a huge gap between the head honcho, the players and most sadly, the fans.
MLB just fined Ozzie Guillen for venting some postgame frustration on Twitter, while the NFL has handed out multiple fines for tweeting at inappropriate times. As far as the UFC is concerned, there is no inappropriate time for fighters to deliver their message on Twitter.
According to MMAFighting, the fighters have a bonus system to reward success on Twitter:
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.
Twitter is double-edged sword. It's crushed a few athletes who sent out controversial messages, but for the most part it's served as a revolutionary way for athletes to close the huge perceived chasm between themselves and the fans.
{ysp:live-poll poll_id="61196"/}
There's no gap between Cagewriter.com and our "fans." Follow Yahoo! Sports MMA on Twitter @kevini, @yahoodoyle, @maggiehendricks and @stevecofield.
