Rob Font details what made layoff, UFC on ESPN 7 matchmaking so horrible

WASHINGTON – Rob Font can sum up the past year of his career in advance of UFC on ESPN 7 with one word: “horrible.”

That’s the word that Font (16-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC) immediately thought of when discussing the longest break of his career between fights. By the time he meets Ricky Simon (15-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) on Saturday, it will have been 357 days since he stepped in the octagon.

What makes the situation frustrating, Font said, is that he’s been healthy all along the way. He had a fight fall through in the middle of fight week in June, then he couldn’t get an opponent to agree to share the cage with him. For someone trying to work up the rankings, it’s not the ideal situation.

Font said a number of potential matchups have been in the works in recent months, but Simon was the only one willing to put pen to paper.

“He was the only one that made getting the fight easy,” Font told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “Everyone else, it just wasn’t happening. They offered us Jimmie Rivera; he said no. I don’t know how the Cody Stamann fight didn’t happen. We were supposed to fight in Greenville; it didn’t happen. Obviously he recovers and gets a whole different fight on the same card. How does that happen? I believe he’s No. 9 (in the UFC’s rankings). He’s fighting the No. 13 guy. But he didn’t want to fight from the beginning.

“The whole time, getting the negotiations, we got the contract, and two weeks later there was no word. I slid in his (Instagram) DMs, and he didn’t respond. I hit him up on Twitter, and he finally responded. Even when I spoke to his manager, and I could tell it was Ricky Simon that wanted to fight. He was like, ‘Simon will fight.’ Cody, you could tell, he didn’t really want to fight. I don’t understand how that fight didn’t happen. But whatever. I’m not going to force the kid to fight. So it’s Ricky.”

Font’s ultimate goal is to be UFC bantamweight champion, but before that happens, he must prove himself. The higher caliber opponent he faces, the more emphatic that point would be. However, he can’t get the matchups he wants.

There have been opportunities for Font to really make a name for himself in the past, but he’s come up short in his most important moments. He’s fully aware of those mistakes, and he wants another chance to show where he stands. But it’s difficult to make forward progress, he admitted.

“I’ve had the opportunities to fight the big guys, the top names,” Font said. “(Raphael) Assuncao, (John) Lineker, Pedro Munhoz, and I’ve messed them up. I want to get right back to that, but you can’t just get right back. You need a couple of these Cody Stamann’s, the ‘Chito’ Vera’s. You need guys like that to get back to these fights, and they’re not wanting to fight. It is what it is.”

Font said it’s up to him to perform to a standard that will generate bigger fights. He said he foresees finishing Simon in their upcoming fight, which takes place at Capital One Arena and airs on ESPN following early prelims on ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass.

As long as the UFC gives him an appropriate step up, Font said he won’t be selective about his next opponent.

“If they offer me a fight, I’m taking it in two seconds,” Font said. “My manager is like, ‘Maybe we should do this.’ I don’t care about that. Just sign the contract. I don’t understand how in 2019 there’s not a lot more fighters like that, especially on the UFC level.”