Screenshot, authorized by FighterBonus

Professional MMA fighter Joel Thomas learned a valuable lesson when he strapped a shock collar around his neck, hopped across the yard's boundary and got zapped into another dimension.

People will do some crazy stuff when money is on the line.

"Me and my buddies were drinking and partying and whatnot, and somebody brought out a shock collar, and they're like, 'Hey, man, I'll give you five bucks if you put that around your neck, turn it up to full blast and shock yourself,'" Thomas told Bleacher Report.

"And I'm thinking, 'No way in hell I'm doing that for five bucks.' But I thought, 'You know what? Maybe if I walk through the house and ask everybody, maybe if they're all willing to throw in a little bit into a pot, then we'll see what we get.'"

For $47, Thomas was convinced. Let the electricity flow. It's worth it now.

To this day, Thomas believes that for the right price, people will do just about anything, and he's bringing that mentality to the cage with a new app tailored for MMA fans, promoters and fighters alike.

Called FighterBonus, the app incentivizes fighters to try wild and crazy moves inside the realm of combat.

Score a flying-knee knockout? You get a bonus.

Finish the fight with the ultra-rare gooseneck submission? You get a bonus, too.

At its core, the app's function is simple. Users sign up, create an account and put down money for what they want to see happen in a fight. You find the fight card and matchup you want, then toss in a couple bucks to see it end by a particular method.

The money goes into a pot with all the other users' contributions, and if the fighter pulls off the desired move, he or she receives the money in the pot. The fans, meanwhile, get to see their funded move play out in real life.

With millions of MMA fans worldwide, Thomas sees this as an opportunity of grand proportions. A $5 donation from a small group of friends didn't convince him to get shocked, but after going through the house and pooling a larger audience, he got what he needed.

Now, the house is the entire globe, and there exists serious potential for some massive payouts, in his eyes.

"If you get all those people and we throw something out like, 'Hey, we want to see somebody get knocked out by a karate chop,' how many other people are going to be like, 'Dude, I'll throw in a buck to see that! I'm already paying $65 to see the fights. I'll throw in another dollar to help build that pot, to help incentivize that fighter to do what the fans want to see,'" Thomas said.

According to Thomas, a 4-0 professional fighter who halted his fighting career to coach at and operate Warrior Camp in Spokane, Washington, this way of thinking already exists in the fighting space.

In an early amateur fight of his, Thomas said a buddy offered him $50 if he could score a flying-knee knockout on his opponent.

After being talked out of it by his coach, however, Thomas fought according to the previously planned script for one round, demolishing his foe and finding little resistance in the process.

With a dominant round in the books, Thomas returned to his corner, and his coach knew his fighter would be safe to let the knee fly in Round 2.

"So right before we go out for the second round, he runs up to me and whispers in my ear, 'Hey, man, I'll let you do that flying knee,'" Thomas said. "I start getting all excited, and right as they ring the bell, I just sprint out and jump and hit the guy right in the face with a knee…So what we do back in the locker rooms, just among us fighters, that challenging and that little thing, it made me think, 'If one person's down to see somebody do something cool, more people probably are too.'"

As a promoter and manager, Thomas looks at the app through several different lenses, and he's thrilled about what the concept can potentially do for the fight game from all sides.

"It's awesome for promoters, because somebody's paying their fighters money that's not coming out of their pocket, and it's making their fighters' fights more exciting, and it's increasing fan engagement," Thomas said.

The app can potentially also help bring more eyes to the sport as a whole, he believes. Even people who do not sign up to donate to a particular cause will be more likely to tune in simply because of the fact that a fighter might think of his lingering prize money and go for broke with a karate chop or a flying knee.

"For the fans, even if you don't want to spend money to see a fighter do something, it still made your experience better because other people are going to put money on it," Thomas said. "Half the people at that party didn't throw in money, but everybody was seeing me outside getting shocked and enjoying it."

Will the app, however, set the sport back a few years and compromise the ever-growing skill and technicality of today's fighters?

Many fans want to see a hard-fought, technical contest between two skilled opponents, and a fighter changing his or her ways in search of a bonus might upset some hardcore fans and promoters. They're promoting a fight as a sanctioned, regulated, professional event, after all, and adding FighterBonus to the mix might make it seem a little too sketchy.

In Thomas' eyes, though, that's not a worry.

"I don't think it will set the sport back, because the fighters can use FighterBonus however they see fit," Thomas said. "If you want, don't look at what you're going to get paid for and plan out your attack and be a smart fighter.

"After you see your opponent breaking and breaking down, maybe I'm ground-and-pounding somebody and there's that little thing in the back of my head that says if you get an armbar, you're going to make $60,000 more. So maybe I'm ground-and-pounding, ground-and-pounding, ground-and-pounding, and I see the ref is almost about to step in, boom I slap on an armbar."

Once a move is successfully executed by a fighter, a check will be mailed to that fighter's manager using the money pooled in FighterBonus.

Even better for fans, if you put in $20 to see something that doesn't pan out, you get your money back.

"The app itself should get downloaded like crazy, and it should make the sport better," Thomas said.

From getting shocked at a house party to creating an app and attempting to revolutionize the sport of mixed martial arts through mobile app development, the almighty dollar has a curious way of sparking inspiration.