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Top 16 UFC Strawweight fighters ranked by # of Social Media followers (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram combined)
1 Paige VanZant 1,086,000
2 Felice Herrig 880,800
3 Joanna Jedrzejczyk 636,000
4 Claudia Gadelha 389,100
5 Carla Esparza 261,400
6 Rose Namajunas 248,368
7 Michelle Waterson 195,600
8 Tecia Torres 144,492
9 Joanne Calderwood 123,370
10 Valerie Letourneau 113,358
11 Karolina Kowalkiewicz 106,055
12 Jessica Penne 95,435
13 Randa Markos 76,284
14 Juliana Lima 49,795
15 Jessica Aguilar 36,324
16 Maryna Moroz 5,809
My initial take on this is that social media ranks Paige and Felice in a way that doesn't jive with their skill level ranking, but it the rest of the fighters line up pretty well overall social media rank vs. skill ranking.
Thoughts on individual fighters:
PVZ got where she is purely due to the UFC Marketing Machine. She is evidence that if the UFC wants you to be a star, they can make you into a star.
Felice Herrig gets a LOT of respect from me, social-media wise. She's been hustling for as long as social media has been around and she's got the numbers to show it, with very little help from Zuffa or her fight record. (one interesting note, her Facebook #'s DESTROY everyone else at well over half a million... she also has the pic of her sitting buck naked in a chair as her profile pic. You do the math.)
JJ, (like Holly Holm) is this high based mostly on skill and the fact she holds a belt. A newbie when it comes to social media, as she gets pushed by sponsors like Samsung and Reebok, her numbers will increase even more.
Gadelha and Esparza honestly surprised me being so high on this list, I really didn't think they would be above Thug Rose, as I didn't remember them being pushed by the UFC like Rose was. I also though Gadelha's language barrier and Esparza's lack of charisma would hurt them more. Perhaps fighting for the belt is a bigger boost than I thought. I suspect Rose will vault over them both if she fights for the belt again.
If Michelle Waterson had put in the effort Felice Herrig has and played up the sexy angle.... she would be on the top of this list. However, she (and surprisingly, the UFC) have decided mostly play up the "hardworking mom" angle. It's a gamble, not a sure thing like the sexy image. If she does well in the UFC and her full-length "Fight Mom" documentary takes off, the "Empowered Mom" market is the BIGGEST demographic you can tap. As an example: when Jessica Alba was one of the world's top sex symbols, she earned millions of dollars. Now that she is popular as a Mom and has a company selling stuff on that "Mom" image, (mostly online via social media) Alba is very close to becoming a Billionaire.
Anyway, seeing as how image seems to be ultra important in the women's divisions, I thought this would be interesting to a few people. Probably very few. Heh.
2 Felice Herrig 880,800
3 Joanna Jedrzejczyk 636,000
4 Claudia Gadelha 389,100
5 Carla Esparza 261,400
6 Rose Namajunas 248,368
7 Michelle Waterson 195,600
8 Tecia Torres 144,492
9 Joanne Calderwood 123,370
10 Valerie Letourneau 113,358
11 Karolina Kowalkiewicz 106,055
12 Jessica Penne 95,435
13 Randa Markos 76,284
14 Juliana Lima 49,795
15 Jessica Aguilar 36,324
16 Maryna Moroz 5,809
My initial take on this is that social media ranks Paige and Felice in a way that doesn't jive with their skill level ranking, but it the rest of the fighters line up pretty well overall social media rank vs. skill ranking.
Thoughts on individual fighters:
PVZ got where she is purely due to the UFC Marketing Machine. She is evidence that if the UFC wants you to be a star, they can make you into a star.
Felice Herrig gets a LOT of respect from me, social-media wise. She's been hustling for as long as social media has been around and she's got the numbers to show it, with very little help from Zuffa or her fight record. (one interesting note, her Facebook #'s DESTROY everyone else at well over half a million... she also has the pic of her sitting buck naked in a chair as her profile pic. You do the math.)
JJ, (like Holly Holm) is this high based mostly on skill and the fact she holds a belt. A newbie when it comes to social media, as she gets pushed by sponsors like Samsung and Reebok, her numbers will increase even more.
Gadelha and Esparza honestly surprised me being so high on this list, I really didn't think they would be above Thug Rose, as I didn't remember them being pushed by the UFC like Rose was. I also though Gadelha's language barrier and Esparza's lack of charisma would hurt them more. Perhaps fighting for the belt is a bigger boost than I thought. I suspect Rose will vault over them both if she fights for the belt again.
If Michelle Waterson had put in the effort Felice Herrig has and played up the sexy angle.... she would be on the top of this list. However, she (and surprisingly, the UFC) have decided mostly play up the "hardworking mom" angle. It's a gamble, not a sure thing like the sexy image. If she does well in the UFC and her full-length "Fight Mom" documentary takes off, the "Empowered Mom" market is the BIGGEST demographic you can tap. As an example: when Jessica Alba was one of the world's top sex symbols, she earned millions of dollars. Now that she is popular as a Mom and has a company selling stuff on that "Mom" image, (mostly online via social media) Alba is very close to becoming a Billionaire.
Anyway, seeing as how image seems to be ultra important in the women's divisions, I thought this would be interesting to a few people. Probably very few. Heh.
