Excite or Exit: Abrupt Termination of Elias Theodorou Sparks Debate

[NILLI]

Boring mediocre fighter. Good thing they cut him.

 

[Lawrence]

Literally Boooo'd out of the stadium by a home town Canadian crowd.

Nobody is more loyal to homers than Canadians.

Boo'd him out of the stadium..

He can win a few fights with a better style and come back..... Maybe

 

[DbosComin]

Justifiable from a business standpoint, but given his winning record, his cutting can't be justified with respect to merit. Why weren't those guys able to knock him out? He must be doing something right.

 

[Bob Sapp]

Elias made Jon Fitch look exciting

Elias striking made Jon Fitch look like Mayweather.

 

[Max Power]

Good riddance.

 

[Spookv]

He wasn't doing anything for the company in terms of profit as in entertainment and getting eyes on the sport. His own country of origin booed him. It sucks that he got cut I guess and is out of job but he should've seen it coming. That money that those were getting can go to fighters who actually deserve it. Doing your job is one thing, but not doing it to your employers standards is another. Like any other job on the planet.

 

[Rational Poster]

Elias made Jon Fitch look exciting

But that off the cage leg kick tho

 

[jeff7b9]

Elias Theodorou... went 8-3 during his UFC tenure....Nine of his 11 bouts have gone to decision, with him winning five.

If he only won 5 of his 9 fights that went to decision.... how is he 8-3 in the UFC?

 

[blackjackz]

Does he deserve to be in the UFC? Sure... he is better than a lot of fighters on the roster... but I would argue he is capped in terms of potential.

A lot of fighters who have gone 8-3 have positioned themselves to where they could headline a Fight Night card, but Elias is arguably not even man card material in terms of draw... his attempts to step up in competition have come short, as his 3 loses are more telling than his 8 wins...

I am a believer that winning matters, so I am not going to fault any fighters style, it is the result that is important. In Elias' case, he has won against low tier competition. He has not entertained, he is not a big draw, nor do I think he is a future contender. If you take this into consideration, cutting him makes sense.

It is not like Dana is going to 'rue the day' that he cut Elias, paving the way for him to sign with Bellator and go on to a legendary career.... could it happen? Sure, but you have to make decisions, and I think this is a pretty safe one to suggest that we know who Elias Theodorou is, and that is a good, serviceable fighter... with good looks and personality, but not that exciting to watch....

 

[Crimp_Keeper]

Elias made Jon Fitch look exciting

Jon Fitch never made me laugh though

 

[FightsFTW]

I don't care tbh, his last fight was a joke, I honestly don't know what the fuck he was doing. He seemed like a guy off the street that they brought in that maybe had a couple MMA classes under him and thought he could beat some top guys, the kind of shit he was doing and what he was throwing was atrocious.

Lets be honest, he wasn't gonna reach the top 5, at least not with his current skillset and style, maybe now he can go somewhere else and improve his skillset and hopefully become a better and more exciting fighter.

 

[Negator402]

The off-the-cage-legkick (the "Slowtime Kick") has to be punished with termination. His style is a mockery not only of the sport, but also of the scoring system. He is a large guy who cannot hurt anybody, runs away, and on top of that, is a ring girl. Come on!

 

[kflo]

I wouldn't mind the decision if the UFC was consistent in this. There are fighters who are just as dull with much worse records who have been allowed to stick for a long time, Clay Guida being the prime example.

If they want to start a new trend of releasing fighters based on entertainment factor, I'm all for it, but they need to be consistent.

except guida was actually in some great fights.

 

[DLX]

Not surprised by this at all. He had the looks, but because most of the MMA audience is straight men, that would only get him so far. It's one thing to not be athletic. But he fought in a way that preferred ineffective razzle dazzle over meat and potatoes. Front back fist has never done any damage in MMA, and it never will.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

LOL

Not for Gay Jesus

 

[pinero]

Less dead weight means more pay for fighters who actually come to fight. I'm good with him being cut.

You should know that that is a lie

 

[MMAProfessional]

Hey, there's actually a HL vid of Elias... and is looks as if he's SORTA exciting too! Oscar for camera work!

You know you're reaching when takedowns are your highlight video

 

[Tito Tapped]

It's prizefighting. Money is the prize. They keep around all sorts of losers just because they make money.

 

[ReadWrite]

Joe Rogan:

“Obviously I’m a giant fan of the UFC; I love them to death. I am so happy and I would (do) nothing for any other organization. I would never want to work for any other organization,” Rogan said on his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “But I don’t like the way they do things. There are a lot of things I don’t like. They just cut Elias Theodorou. One loss (to) Derek Brunson, cut. Like, explain that. How do you explain that? That one doesn’t make any sense.”

 

[capnlarge]

He was never going to be champion or even break into the top 10.