Tyson Chartier: If title shot not next for Rob Font, one more win should do the trick

New England Cartel head Tyson Chartier thinks Rob Font has earned a title shot, but with the current status of the UFC’s bantamweight division, he thinks it may take time.

Font (19-4 MMA, 9-3 UFC) has emerged as a top contender after scoring a marquee finish over former title challenger Marlon Moraes and a shutout of former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt at UFC Fight Night 188.

But with newly crowned champion Aljamain Sterling set to run things back with Petr Yan due to the unfortunate illegal knee ending in their fight, the division’s title picture has been stalled – and so has Font’s road to gold.

“Rob’s division is really weird because you’ve got Aljo coming off that weird win and then the injury,” Chartier told MMA Junkie. “The rumor is that he’s coming back in November, so if him and Yan fight in November, do we get the winner of that or does T.J. (Dillashaw) and (Cory) Sandhagen get the winner of that? I think if you just look at the numbers, people are gonna say Sandhagen or T.J. does because they’re ranked above us.

“We want the title shot, obviously, but we can’t always control that. We’ll be ready for a title shot when it comes, but if not, if we have to fight one more, who knows who that is? Is it the winner of (Pedro) Munhoz and (Jose) Aldo? Is it the loser of this fight coming up in July? Is it the loser of Aljo-Yan? But who knows. A lot of it is out of our control, and our team motto is ‘focus on what you can control,’ so right now, that’s staying in the gym, staying in shape and improving.”

With Sandhagen booked to face Dillashaw in a pivotal bantamweight clash in July, Font also projects that he’ll have to sit back and wait after beating Garbrandt. In his first UFC headliner, Font shined, and Chartier is happy to see the evolvement and composure in the New England Cartel member’s game.

“I feel like people finally realize what we already knew; it just hadn’t come out yet on fight night,” Chartier said. “It’s nice to see him get that blue chip, breakout win and now people that didn’t know who he was before that are truly looking at him as a contender now.”

He continued, “He was disciplined for 25 minutes, and in the past that’s one of the things he struggled with, is staying disciplined for 15, or even staying disciplined the whole first round, so it got him into trouble. He learned some lessons in the past, and he parlayed those lessons into that 25-minute performance.”

To hear the full interview with Chartier, check out the video below.