Theodorou, a veteran of 22 MMA bouts, 11 of those with UFC, was battling stage four liver cancer having not made his diagnosis public. He passed away on Sunday.
Born in Ontario, Canada, ‘The Spartan’ won his first 11 professional fights including his first two with Dana White’s promotion against Bruno Santos and Roger Narvarez.
Theodorou won eight and lost three of his UFC fights in total and holds notable victories over Eryk Anders, Dan Kelly, Cezar Ferreira, and Sam Alvey. He was cut by the promotion following an unanimous decision loss to Derek Brunson in 2019.
He fought as recently as December last year.
Theodorou was an advocate for medical cannabis use for fighters and made history in 2019 when he became the first MMA fighter to receive a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for its use after it was granted by the British Columbia Athletic Commission.
Theodorou also made headlines in 2018 as he debuted as a ‘ring boy’ for all-female promotion Invicta.
UFC president White was one of the first to pay tribute to Theodorou following the announcement of his death by writing: ‘RIP Elias Theodorou.’
A statement from Invicta said: ‘A member of the @InvictaFights family has sadly passed from his battle with cancer. Our sincere condolences to his friends and family. Elias was truly a kind, humble and charismatic personality who will be missed greatly by all.’
UFC fighter Michael Chiesa also paid tribute to his friend in a heart-breaking video shared on social media, recalling a story when Theodorou handed over his jacket so could look sharp at a impromptu press conference.
‘I’ve always said the greatest gifts this sport have ever given me are friendships and memories,’ Chiesa said. ‘I was just about to write this tweet about Elias about when our paths crossed and how I had found this friend and how he is the type of guy to give you the shirt off his back. When it finally hit me.
‘I remembered I had this,’ Chiesa continued, showing the jacket given to him by Theodorou to the camera.
‘I got asked on short notice to do a press conference and I didn’t have a dress jacket with me, I didn’t have anything with a collar. He was wearing this with a t shirt and he took the jacket off and gave it to me. I never got the chance to give it back to him, but that is the type of guy he was.’
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