The Film Room: Elias Theodorou
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Elias Theodorou will step inside the Octagon for the 11th time when he takes on Derek Brunson in the UFC Fight Night 151 co-main event on Saturday in Ottawa, Ontario. “The Spartan” has pieced together an 8-2 record since he joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2014, and a win over Brunson figures to thrust him into the Top 10 at 185 pounds for the first time in his career.
Theodorou serves as the subject for this edition of The Film
Room.
Early in his career, Theodorou showed he is capable of standard leading attacks, but we have not seen this much outside of his first UFC fight.
The only constant in Theodorou’s game is the frequent use of kicks. He targets all areas of the body and likes to start and end his combos with kicks to keep the opponent at a safe distance. Again, you never know what kick is coming. It could be a standard round kick to the head or a weird series of kicks in an order that does not quite make sense. One of my favorite kicking combos from him saw him utilize a side kick into a leg kick before switching stances and throwing a lead-leg pendulum kick to the head against Daniel Kelley.
Theodorou often likes to stay on the outside and blitz with his weird combos before resetting at range, but he also likes to mix in exchanges in the pocket and the clinch. Theodorou comes from a muay Thai background, and it is evident in his clinch work. He does not strike enough in the clinch, but simply keeping the opponent against the cage and slowly picking him apart is extremely tiring, which makes his strikes easier to land as the fight goes on.
Theodorou is mainly a striker, but he does have a surprisingly good ground game on which he has relied in the past. His only finish in the UFC resulted from ground-and-pound, and when he is not getting it done on the feet, he can comfortably work in the clinch and on the ground to net a win. It would be nice to see him get more aggressive on the mat, but he uses his grappling sparingly.
Theodorou’s awkward movement makes it hard to time openings and hit him, but this wild style has been exploited in the past. He keeps his hands low and drops them even lower when throwing kicks -- a tendency Thiago Santos and Cezar Ferreira exposed and countered with a straight punch down the middle. His cardio has also been a major issue inside the Octagon. Theodorou starts the fight light on his feet and blitzes in and out with combos, but as the fight progresses, he starts to stand flatfooted. That, along with his low hands, makes him an easy target to hit in the later rounds.
Elias Theodorou will step inside the Octagon for the 11th time when he takes on Derek Brunson in the UFC Fight Night 151 co-main event on Saturday in Ottawa, Ontario. “The Spartan” has pieced together an 8-2 record since he joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2014, and a win over Brunson figures to thrust him into the Top 10 at 185 pounds for the first time in his career.
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While this looks to be an intriguing matchup, it has flown under
the radar. Brunson ranks as one of the most aggressive fighters in
the UFC, while Theodorou’s style can best be described as “weird,”
with a good mixed of patience and aggression. Theodorou is a
difficult fighter to peg, but it is hard to argue with an 8-2 mark
in the UFC and a 16-2 record overall. Other than some sort of kick,
it is nearly impossible to know what is coming from Theodorou, as
he is constantly switching his stances and attacks. This wild style
may look easy to defend, but it is an incredibly difficult approach
for which to train since nobody fights quite like him. Step-over
side kicks into a spinning backfist, wild overhand rights into kung
fu-style backfists, jumping off of the cage into a leg kick … these
are just some of the weird combos he unleashes.
Early in his career, Theodorou showed he is capable of standard leading attacks, but we have not seen this much outside of his first UFC fight.
The only constant in Theodorou’s game is the frequent use of kicks. He targets all areas of the body and likes to start and end his combos with kicks to keep the opponent at a safe distance. Again, you never know what kick is coming. It could be a standard round kick to the head or a weird series of kicks in an order that does not quite make sense. One of my favorite kicking combos from him saw him utilize a side kick into a leg kick before switching stances and throwing a lead-leg pendulum kick to the head against Daniel Kelley.
Theodorou often likes to stay on the outside and blitz with his weird combos before resetting at range, but he also likes to mix in exchanges in the pocket and the clinch. Theodorou comes from a muay Thai background, and it is evident in his clinch work. He does not strike enough in the clinch, but simply keeping the opponent against the cage and slowly picking him apart is extremely tiring, which makes his strikes easier to land as the fight goes on.
Theodorou is mainly a striker, but he does have a surprisingly good ground game on which he has relied in the past. His only finish in the UFC resulted from ground-and-pound, and when he is not getting it done on the feet, he can comfortably work in the clinch and on the ground to net a win. It would be nice to see him get more aggressive on the mat, but he uses his grappling sparingly.
Theodorou’s awkward movement makes it hard to time openings and hit him, but this wild style has been exploited in the past. He keeps his hands low and drops them even lower when throwing kicks -- a tendency Thiago Santos and Cezar Ferreira exposed and countered with a straight punch down the middle. His cardio has also been a major issue inside the Octagon. Theodorou starts the fight light on his feet and blitzes in and out with combos, but as the fight progresses, he starts to stand flatfooted. That, along with his low hands, makes him an easy target to hit in the later rounds.
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