UFC fighter Elias Theodorou happily wears many hats

Ring boy. Model. Actor. Producer. Medical marijuana advocate. Elias (The Spartan) Theodorou delights in wearing many hats. But the Toronto middleweight returns to Job 1 on Saturday when he takes on former University of Alabama linebacker Eryk (Ya Boi) Anders on the undercard of UFC 231 at Scotiabank Arena.

The main event pits featherweight champion Max (Blessed) Holloway against No. 1 contender Brian (T-City) Ortega while Valentina (Bullet) Shevchenko faces off against Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the vacant women’s flyweight title in the co-main event. Theodorou (16-2-0, including 7-2 in the UFC) is coming off a unanimous decision over Trevor (Hot Sauce) Smith in Liverpool in May. The Canadian, ranked 14th among 185-pound contenders, needed 10 stitches to close a diagonal cut on his forehead caused by a clash of heads.

“Well, chicks dig scars,” Theodorou said with a smile post-fight. “And luckily so does my girlfriend.”

Six months later, the scar has faded. But Theodorou’s smile is as wide as ever.

And why not? The 30-year-old is looking to produce and star in a film about an injured MMA fighter who reinvents himself as a top video gamer.

In March, he took a sexist stereotype and turned it on its head by becoming a ring boy for the all-female Invicta FC promotion. He’s done it four or five times since and is working on a ring boy calendar featuring other fighters.

“In the true pursuit of equality, I’m going to have many different weight classes because big is beautiful in MMA,” he said. Theodorou says he is breaking barriers - and a few hearts.

Circling a cage clad only in fight shorts while holding a ring card is also incentive to watch your weight, says Theodorou.

“Being ring boy-ready obviously keeps you a little bit lighter. Nothing like a little vanity to get you motivated,” he said with a chuckle. He’s heading to Kansas City later this month for Invicta 33 and expects to be a ring boy at more than a dozen events next year. Theodorou, who won the TUF Nations reality TV show in April 2104, was originally slated to meet Antonio Carlos Junior at a UFC event in Sao Paulo on Sept. 22, but the Brazilian was sidelined by injury. The fight was pushed back to the Toronto date, but the 12th-ranked Brazilian was still not ready so Anders took his place.