Meet the UFC fighter who isn’t a big name, but is a romance novel cover boy
Elias Theodorou isn't a household name, at least not yet. But he might be familiar if you read Harlequin romance novels.
There are a number of photos of Theodorou, a rising UFC middleweight who fights Bruno Santos on Saturday in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on their covers.
The majority of them focus on what apparently the company's editors think is his best feature.
"You have to ask them why, but it seems they like my derriere," Theodorou said, chuckling. "I know. They like the looks of my butt."
Theodorou was the middleweight winner of "The Ultimate Fighter: Nations," and gained some measure of renown during his victory over Sheldon Westcott in the finale.
As Theodorou was on top of Westcott and in total control of the fight, he peered up, grinned at the camera and said, "Hi, Mom!"
Some people took it as he meant it and laughed, but others were outraged and found it disrespectful. However, he got as much attention for those two words as he did for just about anything else he'd ever done in fighting.
"It kind of took on a life of its own," he said. "I didn't mean anything disrespectful to Sheldon by it. This was the biggest night of my life as a fighter, and this was a huge moment for me and I am this silly man-child, and I got excited."
He won't say if he has an encore planned for Saturday's bout with Santos, but he said: "My dad's birthday is a couple of weeks away, so who knows? He may get some love, too."
Theodorou has an engaging personality and creative mind, in addition to his ability to fight at a high level. He graduated from Humber College with a degree in creative advertising, but has mostly done some modeling to earn extra money in his attempt to make the big time.
He's also dabbled in acting and stunt work, because it's hard to make a living on the regional fight circuit.
"There's no way fighting on these smaller shows that you're going to make enough money to support yourself just from fighting," Theodorou said. "So you have to find other ways."
He's taken advantage of his looks to supplement his income as he's gradually risen in the fight game.
But it's those photos on the cover of the romance novels that have gotten him the most notoriety. It's also garnered him quite a bit of ribbing from his friends.
"They do like to bust my [chops] a little bit, but it doesn't hurt my bragging to the ladies," he said with a laugh. "[My friends] may want to bust my [chops] when they see one of my covers, but when we go out, it works in my favor."
His appearance on The Ultimate Fighter has helped increase his exposure throughout Canada, sometimes in unwanted ways.
More and more, he's being recognized on the streets by mixed martial arts fans, which isn't a bad thing in his mind. It's a little rough, though, when fans don't understand boundaries.
That was the case recently when Theodorou was at a nightclub and was dancing with a woman he was interested in.
"What's happened, I think, as I've been more and more recognized, is that I've become everyone's bro," Theodorou said. "Everyone wants to show me how much of a bro they are and show me how much they love fighting or how much they support me. … It's not negative, but sometimes it's better than others when it happens.
"This one time, I was dancing with this girl and I noticed this guy who was totally obliterated. I'm with the girl and I could see he recognized me. He comes stumbling out onto the dance floor and he could barely stand up, and he just walks right up and taps me on the back and says, 'Hey man, I'm a huge fan. Can I get your picture?' And I just have to laugh and say 'Yeah, as soon as this dance is over, no problem.' It's kind of weird."
Theodorou has good things to say about Santos, but is fully confident of a victory.
He's so confident that he's already thinking ahead, though not so much to his next opponent. He said he'd like a shot at Chris Camozzi if he gets past Santos, but his immediate thoughts are more basic.
"I respect Bruno but I want to put on a hell of a show, win and then go find the best buffet I can to celebrate," he said. "I have a lot of weight to cut to get to 185 and it's a lot of hard work and sacrifice. I have to drop about 35 pounds to get down, so once this is over, I'm going to find a buffet and go at it."
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