To the outrage of many, the UFC released middleweight Elias Theodorou over the weekend. The reason the decision seems to have come as such a shock is Theodorou’s overall success inside the octagon: He won “The Ultimate Fighter: Nations” in April 2014 and went 8-3 during his UFC tenure, including only one loss in his past four fights. He’s also been a popular figure with how he carries himself on social media. Then again, despite the UFC wins Theodorou has tallied, he’s never carried a reputation for excitement. Nine of his 11 bouts have gone to decision, with him winning five.
So what are we to make of the UFC releasing a successful – if boring – fighter like Theodorou? MMA Junkie’s John Morgan, Fernanda Prates and Ben Fowlkes sound off in this edition of “Triple Take.”
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John Morgan: His win-loss record is admirable, but performances speak for themselves
Listen, I’ll never sit here and argue any fighter SHOULD be cut. That would just be downright mean considering you’re essentially calling for someone to lose their primary source of income. That said, I guess I just don’t find this move by the UFC particularly shocking.
Elias Theodorou’s track record in terms of wins and losses was certainly admirable. His penchant for earning those results in even remotely entertaining fashion wasn’t.
Take, for instance, MMA Junkie columnist Ben Fowlkes’ own takeaway from Theodorou’s final UFC performance. In laying out praise for Derek Brunson’s patient approach to fighting the awkward Canadian middleweight, Ben describes precisely why Theodorou was terminated.
For an abundantly aggressive and not terribly patient fighter like Brunson, Elias Theodorou presented an interesting test. Theodorou won’t stand there and brawl. He won’t stand there at all. If you want to get your hands on him, you have to go looking for him. If you get careless in the process, he can make you pay.
The idea that Theodorou can “make you pay” is, I guess, somewhat subjective. His final eight UFC fights all went the distance, so he wasn’t exactly punishing those careless offenders.
But let’s just say you don’t trust Ben’s analysis of the fight; take Steven Marrocco’s, instead.
It’s not easy to short circuit the frustratingly elusive Canadian. But Brunson proved again it could be done with solid wrestling chops and patient counters. Theodorou is an original in a sport full of cardboard cutouts. He makes his herky-jerky style work against opponents who look like they should clobber him. But if he wants to beat guys like Brunson, he’ll need to come up with a better strategy. Being eccentric will keep you around. But eventually you have to be effective.
As you can see, the evaluations of Theodorou’s performances weren’t exactly positive, and even more unfortunately, it wasn’t as if this was a one-time thing. It had become a pattern for Theodorou, and I imagine the final straw for UFC officials had to be hearing the Canadian showered with boos in his home country at UFC Ottawa.
It’s no secret that MMA is not a sport based simply on wins and losses. It’s about entertainment, as well. And with that in mind, I’ll ask anyone bemoaning Theodorou’s release to tell me, please, what fight they were just itching to see him in next? What was the dream Theodorou matchup that you feel you’re now losing forever, the one that would headline a UFC event and be a surefire “Fight of the Night” affair?
I imagine Theodorou, himself, wasn’t even terribly surprised this would one day be his fate, even if he didn’t expect it at this exact time. He wisely diversified his portfolio to include shampoo sponsorships, acting roles and even “ring boy” duties, and I’m glad he did. Theodorou is an incredibly nice, incredibly friendly, fun guy to be around, but his fighting performances left something to be desired and made this a necessary choice for the UFC.
Next page – Fernanda Prates: Like his style or not, this isn’t a great message to fighters
Fernanda Prates: Like his style or not, this isn’t a great message to fighters
Shortly after finding out that Elias Theodorou was among the fighters who had been cut by the UFC, I tweeted my thoughts on it. More precisely, considering we didn’t – and still don’t – have many details as to what exactly happened behind the scenes, I focused my thoughts on some of the reactions to it.
“Whether you like a fighter’s style or not, saying it’s OK for them to be cut after one loss is saying it’s OK for them to be cut based on arbitrary, subjective grounds. I don’t get people who do that and in the same breath complain about how the UFC treats their fighters.”
One of my Twitter friends took issue with the “arbitrary, subjective grounds” part. “Athletes in every sport are cut on arbitrary, subjective grounds on a daily basis,” he answered. And that’s totally fair.
In fact, one could argue that all of the decisions made by the UFC in regard to its fighters are based on arbitrary, subjective grounds. The rankings, like it or not, are subjective. Who gets a title shot is, more often than not, subjective. The life of a fighter is filled with uncertainty, and that’s something that kind of comes with the territory given how their employment system is currently set up.
But there are a few things that are objective. Like, you know, wins.
I get that not everyone responded well to Theodorou’s style. He isn’t flashy like Johnny Walker. He isn’t a technician like Dominick Cruz. All but two of his UFC bouts went to a decision. He fights both awkwardly and intelligently and wins by, as another Twitter friend pointed out, being “grueling to fight against.”
But that’s the thing: Theodorou wins. Like, a lot. He’d done that three times in a row before losing to Brunson. He’d done that more than twice as many times as he had lost in the UFC before they cut him.
Not to mention the other boxes that Theodorou checked when it comes to what fighters are told they must do in order to succeed. He marketed himself, he created his own branding, he had a strong social media presence, and he made sure people knew who he was.
There’s a reason why, out of the four names on the list of fighters cut by the UFC, Theodorou’s was the one that generated buzz. People were surprised. In a world where so little is guaranteed and where not many people are safe, most assumed that the popular, mostly victorious Theodorou was.
By saying he wasn’t, what exactly are you telling his peers?
I can’t speak for the fighters, but what I’d probably get from it is: You know this thing we always told you you needed to do, which is win? Yeah, that’s not enough. You have to do it in a way that’s conventionally exciting. And, yes, being exciting does often mean exposing yourself to more danger – and, therefore, increases the risk of losing – but I guess that’s just life, huh?
Even for a group of people already so used to pressure and uncertainty in their line of work, that seems like a raw deal.
Next page – Ben Fowlkes: The market for MMA fighters is increasingly specific and not the least bit forgiving
Ben Fowlkes: The market for MMA fighters is increasingly specific, and not the least bit forgiving
First, let’s establish what this move is not about. The UFC clearly didn’t cut Elias Theodorou because he wasn’t good enough. He went 8-3 over the course of five years with the promotion. He never lost two in a row. His loss to Brunson snapped a three-fight winning streak. You can say you don’t enjoy his style, but you can’t say he sucks.
You also can’t say that it was because fans didn’t care about him. Theodorou has made himself into a known figure in MMA mostly through sheer effort and accessibility. Fans recognize him, they have opinions about him (whether good or bad), and they notice when he’s on a card. The UFC put him in the co-main event for his last bout, so clearly it thought he was a somebody worth spotlighting.
Maybe it was his vocal pro-marijuana stance. Except, hold on, didn’t the UFC just announce a deal with “Aurora Cannabis”? Plus, all evidence suggests that marijuana is pretty popular, and the UFC doesn’t particularly mind hiring fighters who partake from time to time.
That leaves us with fighting style. And, yeah, Theodorou can be frustrating to watch sometimes. He’s never going to be the guy who’ll plant his feet in the center of the cage and throw with reckless abandon. That’s just not who he is.
But if he was cut solely for a failure to entertain, that’s tricky. It hints at an aesthetic standard that fighters have to meet in addition to a competitive one. It might even hint that the aesthetic is more important than the competitive, especially when you look at some of the people still sticking around.
This doesn’t rank among the great tragedies of sports management or even among one of the more egregious moves the UFC has ever made, but it is still illuminating. In recent years we’ve seen that you can do a lot of bad things and stay on the UFC roster. What you can’t do, apparently, is bore us.
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