Athletes
Rob Font's Badge Of Honor
Veteran Bantamweight Welcomes Yet Another Dangerous Opponent Saturday In Las Vegas
Team Font has arrived in Las Vegas. Dad, mom, baby and Kattar are all present and accounted for, and if anyone sounds ready for a fight this weekend at the APEX, it’s Rob Font, the longtime bantamweight contender looking to show one of the young guns of the division – Kyler Phillips – how it’s done.
The last time the New England Cartel standout was placed in this position – in April of 2023 against hot prospect Adrian Yanez – Font ended the fight in less than three minutes, picking up his third Performance of the Night bonus in the process.
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Experience matters. And he believes it will again on Saturday.
“The experience part does play a little bit into it,” said Font. “At first, me coming up, I was like, no, that's bulls**t, until I fought guys like Jose Aldo, (Raphael) Assuncao, even Deiveson Figueiredo, then never mind, experience does play a part. You learn how to stay calm in crazy moments. You learn how to win the fight a little bit better. My plan is to play the scorecards a little better. Sometimes I'm in there just looking for finishes and I'm just trying to get the fight done in a spectacular way. Especially my last one with Deiveson Figueiredo. He played the game a lot better than I did. I was looking to finish him; he was looking to score points and keep the lead. I felt that before and I guess I didn't really buy into it until I thought, I got to start playing this game more. And I feel like this camp, I've been doing that in my sparring rounds. And the best thing about him, he's young, he comes out hot, so he's going to throw a lot of stuff. So that's going to be a lot more opportunities for me to counter and make him pay.”
Saturday's Full Fight Card Preview
The key part of that assessment by Font is that when he mentions his recent loss to former flyweight king Deiveson Figueiredo, it’s clear that he’s still learning at 37, that he doesn’t walk into a fight thinking he has all the answers. No fighter does, but some think they do when they get to a certain point in their career and that’s when the continually evolving sport passes them by. Font isn’t going to let that happen, and he needs to look no further than his lady, Kathryn, and their daughter, Emerald, for the inspiration to stay motivated and keep evolving.
And the Font trio is truly a family unit, with Emerald on a plane with her parents almost as soon as she was born, keeping a close eye on mom and dad.
Rob Font Fight Week Interview | UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Pereira
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Rob Font Fight Week Interview | UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Pereira
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“I saw an Eminem quote where he said he wouldn't go on tour until his daughter was grown,” said Font. “I understand that. I get that. He didn't want to go on tour because he didn't want to miss anything, because everybody tells you how fast kids grow, and until you have your own and you see it, you're like, oh my God, it's just flying by.”
Parent or not, time does have a way of zooming out of control. It doesn’t seem like over a decade since Font made his UFC debut with a first-round knockout of George Roop, and while there are no gimmes in the Octagon, Font took strength of schedule to new heights from the spring of 2016 on. Look at the names on his UFC slate: World champions Figueiredo, Cody Garbrandt and Jose Aldo; and top contenders Raphael Assuncao, Cory Sandhagen, Marlon Vera, Pedro Munhoz, John Lineker, Marlon Moraes, Sergio Pettis and Ricky Simon.
It's a badge of honor to have that kind of resume. But it’s nothing that surprised Font.
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“That's what you get in the UFC,” he said. “That's what you get when you want to be that guy that the UFC calls and we answer and they're not calling with matchups like the regional scene; they're calling for you to get opportunities to either take out a legend or become that legend. And I had my opportunities - I did good on some of them. I messed up a couple of them. But yeah, there's no easy fights in the UFC.”
He's being humble, because there’s really no easy fights if your name is Rob Font and you say “Yes” to everyone.
Font laughs.
“Yeah, it's been a rough road, but a fun road. I wouldn't ask for it any other way if it came down to it. We took the hard road, even on the regional scene. We wanted to make sure that we were prepared to get into these types of fights. So even when I was coming up, fighting in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, they were all tough fights at that time. I was fighting at ’45, too, so they were tough fights and they were bigger than me. But I think with that preparation, I knew I was ready for the UFC. I knew I could take these fights and I could fight these type of guys.”
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He's fighting another one in Phillips this weekend. And though, he’s got enough motivation on his side to take care of his family and snap a two-fight losing streak in his first fight since December of last year, knowing that he’s fighting someone like himself, one of the best in the world at 135 pounds, has him even more amped up.
Rob Font | Greatest Hits
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Rob Font | Greatest Hits
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It’s not hard to get motivated, especially once you get that contract, but it definitely helps a little more to kind of get going once you hear that name you got. You know if you don't put it all in, you're going to get f**ked up. It's one of those things where it doesn't take much for me to get motivated, but it does help when you have a Top 10 or a legend like Jose Aldo or a guy like Deiveson Figueiredo that's been a champion. You’re fighting ex-champions, you're fighting big names like that, you're fighting Top 10 guys, it does help when I'm running those miles in the morning or hitting an extra strength and conditioning class. And you’re used to it. I know a lot of guys say they want to do it, but I'm the guy that will do it and I think I fought everybody in the Top 10 except for guys like Petr Yan, obviously the champ (Merab Dvalishvili), (Sean) O'Malley, guys like that. But I fought a lot of these guys and they were almost running out of guys for me to fight because I've been in the Top 10 and Top 15 for a while. And same thing with this kid. This kid is no joke, man. He's intense, he brings it, he's a fast starter, he's creative when he strikes, and he can wrestle. So this is another dangerous fight.”
Just the way Rob Font wants it.
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