Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently announced that it had released Elias Theodorou — among others — despite the fact that “The Spartan” was 3-1 in his last four outings inside the Octagon.
Sure, Elias was coming off a loss to Derek Brunson, but the former Ultimate Fighter (TUF) winner has never even come close to suffering back-to-back defeats inside the Octagon, or in his career, for that matter.
Still, UFC felt it no longer wanted to be in business with Elias — who was ranked No. 15 at the time — and sent him on his way, much to the chagrin of UFC color commentator Joe Rogan.
“Obviously I’m a giant fan of the UFC, I love them to death. I am so happy and I would nothing for any other organization. I would never want to work for any other organization,” explained Joe 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,” he said during a conversation with top women’s Strawweight contender, Michelle Waterson.
“Like explain that. How do you explain that? That one doesn’t make any sense.”
Joe has never been one to bite his tongue when it comes to his differences of opinion with the promotion, and company president Dana White has never kept Joe on a leash when it comes to expressing himself on the mic.
Furthermore, Rogan — though he wouldn’t go into too much detail as to why — made it clear he is not a fan on interim title fights.
“Some matchups don’t make any sense. Interim titles are preposterous,” he added. Of course, that is one area in which Joe and Dana disagree on, as White has stated that staging interim title fights is beneficial to all parties involved, especially fighters.