A fighter's appearance at a UFC© event is tremendous exposure and this can be quantified in their Twitter #'s. A great performance can mean hordes of new followers giving the fighter a larger platform from which to opine, interact with fans and to market themselves & their sponsors. The PHIGHT5r MMA Event Twitter Rankings© are a way to observe and measure what happens during the immediate period surrounding the event.
Pre-Event counts are taken on Thursdays so as to include the press conference & weigh-in hype period. Post-Event counts are taken on the Monday following to capture results that include exposure to a full day's news cycle.
* - PHIGHT5r MMA Twitter Rankings© Top 50 Fighter
| Twitter© | Fighter | Pre #'s | Post #'s | Change | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| @roynelsonmma | Roy Nelson* | 349,533 | 357,071 | 7,538 | 2.2% |
| @junior_cigano | Junior dos Santos* | 240,326 | 258,886 | 18,560 | 7.7% |
| @mayhemmiller | Jason Miller | 218,135 | 221,014 | 2,879 | 1.3% |
| @thefrankmir | Frank Mir* | 143,295 | 148,002 | 4,707 | 3.3% |
| @danhardymma | Dan Hardy* | 137,636 | 141,326 | 3,690 | 2.7% |
| @cainmma | Cain Velasquez* | 119,701 | 126,674 | 6,973 | 5.8% |
| @StefanStruve | Stephan Struve | 17,043 | 18,572 | 1,529 | 9.0% |
| @mikebrownmma | Mike Brown | 16,596 | 16,992 | 396 | 2.4% |
| @BigfootSilva | Antonio Silva | 15,316 | 16,965 | 1,649 | 10.8% |
| @EdsonBarbozaJR | Edson Barboza | 15,824 | 16,904 | 1,080 | 6.8% |
| @DUANEBANGCOM | Duane Ludwig | 16,569 | 16,880 | 311 | 1.9% |
| @jamievarner | Jamie Varner | 13,422 | 15,359 | 1,937 | 14.4% |
| @Kingsbu | Kyle Kingsbury | 13,037 | 13,327 | 290 | 2.2% |
| @DiegoBrandaoMMA | Diego Brandao | 12,377 | 13,055 | 678 | 5.5% |
| @cbdollaway | CB Dollaway | 10,792 | 11,192 | 400 | 3.7% |
| @Paul_Sass | Paul Sass | 5,103 | 6,410 | 1,307 | 25.6% |
| @JacobVolkmann | Jacob Volkmann | 5,803 | 5,923 | 120 | 2.1% |
| @smiocic | Stipe Miocic | 4,920 | 5,880 | 960 | 19.5% |
| @LavarJohnson | Lavar Johnson | 4,163 | 4,986 | 823 | 19.8% |
| @gloverteixeira | Glover Teixeira | 1,174 | 2,439 | 1,265 | 107.8% |
| @davehermanmma | Dave Herman | 1,732 | 1,926 | 194 | 11.2% |
| @Darren_Elkins | Darren Elkins | 1,163 | 1,456 | 293 | 25.2% |
| @DanielPitPineda | Daniel Pineda | 1,198 | 1,337 | 139 | 11.6% |
| @Delrosariomma | Shane Del Rosario | 366 | 757 | 391 | 106.8% |
Pre-fight counts taken 2012/05/24
Post-fight counts taken 2012/05/28
Pre-fight Twitter Followers: 1,365,224
Post-fight Twitter Followers: 1,423,333
Follower Increase: 58,109 (4.3%)
The 58,109 new Twitter followers that these guys have taken on falls right in line with other numbered UFC© events. The percentage looks lower than normal, and it is, but that's just because of the massive following the top end of this card had going into the event. It's rare that an event that does not include Anderson Silva has more than one million combined followers as this one did.
WINNERS:
1. Glover Teixeira - Hello Glover! Welcome to America & welcome to the UFC©... Glover more than doubled his following while fighting from a Facebook slot with his impressive win over Kyle Kingsbury. Always good to see new blood in a division where The Champ has been wiping everybody out.
2. Junior dos Santos - Defends the Heavyweight Championship and gains 18.5K in new followers... that gets you on the WINNERS list. JDS made the largest gain in real followers on the night and so far is one of the few Brazilians in the MMA Rankings Top 50 that I have deemed not to be buying followers.
3. Jamie Varner - Raise your hand if you had Varner by KO... No one? Didn't think so. Jamie took on a popular up and comer in Barboza and handled him very well by getting the TKO and the fans responded on social media.
LOSERS:
1. Jason Miller - I know he gained close to 3K in new followers but.... That's well under the 2% threshold that usually puts a fighter on this list. If one is actually a good fighter, their existing Tweeps should be talking them up and helping to add new followers. Instead, it seems as if most of Jason's 200K+ followers were as uninspired and unimpressed as the rest of the MMA world with his performance and shenanigans. Did I mention that the UFC© immediately dropped him after his fight as well?
2. Jacob Volkmann - Uninspiring when he wins. His Twitter results prove he's even more so when he loses. His schtick has gotten old as well...
3. Duane Ludwig - He's here by default. Most of the guys had really good nights. Duane just happened to come in below the 2% mark. He got knocked out fairly quickly and already has a significant following. Duane is very active on Twitter and even though he landed on the list of the night's losers, I would recommend a follow.
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