Elias Theodorou of Mississauga, Ont., is one of eight Canadians competing on TUF Nations. He will be writing weekly blogs for sportsnet.ca to share an inside perspective about what went on inside the gym and house.
TUF Nations: Canada vs. Australia episode seven recap
If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail…
Last week, we witnessed Team Canada’s Sheldon Westcott make quick work of Judo Olympian Dan Kelly. His explosion out of the gate caught all of us by surprise, especially Dan. This once again demonstrated how little research Kyle Noke and the rest of the Aussie coaching staff did on our team, compared to the thorough briefing Patrick Cote and his assistant coaches gave us to for our Aussie counterparts. This manhandling upped Team Canada’s lead to 4-2, and left the Australians quite upset with Kajan and myself, due to our “overly excited” celebration of Sheldon’s victory, which brings us nicely to this week’s events.
High school confidential…
Poor Kajan is now on every Aussie’s hit list, with Richard Walsh desiring to fight him in the semis and Vik wanting to give him a verbal tongue lashing. To be fair to the Ragin One, the Aussies are attacking him and his character on something they only half heard and completely took out of context and put into their own. What’s up with that? Not to mention the childish drama and awkward dinner table conversations it made for. There was no greater instance of this than when Vik stopped in the middle of cutting veggies and meat to head to our room to give Kajan his two cents on celebrating. I understand the need to come to Dan’s defence, but for me, their approach is so high school. I heard Kajan is planning to go steady with Amy, too, but I digress.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Watch TUF Nations every Wednesday at 10 p.m. EST on Sportsnet 360 and visit sportsnet.ca for weekly recaps and blogs
They see me rollin’, they hatin’…
We later received the opportunity to compete for a ride in an actual Ferrari, with a friendly race on a brand spanking new Xbox One. Can’t win them all, and as we witnessed when it was my turn. I had a constipated look while making sharp turns. In my defence, I kick high-resolution ass in any arcade fighting game, which I did many times while doing promos for Xbox in a weird basement in the warehouse of the gym. I even put Matt in a headlock and smashed him in Killer Instinct; I kick ass at ass-kicking games!
The Next GSP?
With this week’s episode featuring Olivier and Jake’s fight, a great deal of light was cast upon one of our most promising prospects. The French-Canadian Olivier has been dubbed “the next GSP” by some which are very big shoes to fill, but with a 4-0 record, all by rear-naked choke, he’s off to one hell of a start.
Olivier talks much about the love of his life — his daughter — and how incredibly difficult it was for him to say goodbye to her for this competition. I am not a father, but can only imagine how difficult it would be to leave behind such an important little person in your life. His daughter is such a cutie, and she would be so proud of her father’s performance in his fight with Jake.
I want you to hit me as hard as you can…
At the beginning of the contest, Oli allowed Jake to pressure him, seemingly wanting to get hit — many times — which is just crazy, to me. But the judo prospect wanted to feel what it was like to get punched in a fight. Okay, well, to each his own. After the opening minutes and Jake’s initial burst of offence, Oli began to do his thing; he would eventually take the fight to the cage, his home, and then to the floor. On the ground, Oli is a beast and absolutely manhandled the Aussie welterweight.
The second round continued much the same, with Jake able to get back to his feet a few times. His inexperience would show itself though, as he pulled guard and went back to the place where Oli’s most at home and at his strongest. To his credit, Jake was able to fight off a rear-naked choke and survived to the bell. There was no need for a third, as the “Québécois Kid” did everything required for the victory. With that, Team Canada now has a 5-2 advantage over our opponents from Down Under.
This also closed out the welterweight brackets for the next round, with two of the three Canadians now guaranteed to fight each other in the semifinals, leaving the lone Aussie, Mr. Walsh, the subject of a great deal more courting by his potential opponents in the near future. As I suggested previously, I think a rose ceremony is the perfect way to figure this out.
There can be only one…
Next up is the final middleweight quarterfinal bout. The “big boys” get to duke it out for the last MW slot and the chance to make their mark in the tournament. Luke Harris is well known in the Canadian MMA scene. The judo juggernaut walks around big — normally 220 pounds — and has a killer ground game, with some of the slickest inverted chokes and cranks in the business. He faces Aussie striker Vik “The nega-Spartan” Grujic. (I am the true Spartan — as Highlander taught us: “There can be only one.”)
Vik is a much smaller middleweight, but he’s very strong, with powerful hands and slams. Can he pull off another Aussie upset or will the Canuck powerhouse choke his way to a first round finish? Stay tuned, all will be revealed next week on The Ultimate Fighter. Same Spartan time (10 p.m.), same Spartan channel (Sportsnet 360).
Life’s a beach…
As for me, I am currently in Thailand with Pat, Kru Ash and recent Team Canada convert Richard Walsh! We are training at the famed Tiger Muay Thai camp, with some of the best in all facets of MMA, specifically Muay Thai striking. We are training like savages — about a million kicks a day on the bamboo trees and some legit Ong-Bak striking. All jokes aside, this is a dream come true for us as we take our training to the next level. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on all that. Now, if you excuse me, I’m off to the beach.
Missing the cold, but not really…
Until next week,
Your favourite Canadian puncher-kicker.