A few days have passed since the UFC’s latest fight night in which the number 5 ranked bantamweight Rob Font headlined the main event against number 8 ranked Chito Vera. it was a great fight in which Vera essentially battered Font in a calm and calculated performance in a win that took the Ecuadorian to 5th in the bantamweight rankings taking Font’s number. This loss was Font’s second in a row leaving him in a peculiar position this one was particularly worst than the first due to the failed weight cut and losing to a lower-ranked fighter leaving one to wonder what is next for Rob Font?
Embed from Getty ImagesWhile I believe Rob Font is in a weird situation I do want to clarify that the man has not lost any real ability in terms of his own ability to fight his showing on Saturday night was by no means a poor performance Font’s striking looked good with him landing more significant strikes than Vera even setting a new UFC record for significant and total strikes landed and attempted in a fight in the bantamweight division in a fight which also had the most combined strikes in a UFC fight which didn’t involve former featherweight champion, Max Holloway.
The issue with Rob Font is not that his fighting ability has necessarily declined but simply that with his current skill set and durability he most likely does not beat anybody in the current top 5. Font is an amazing boxer whose abilities obtained him the number 5 rank in his division but has recently shown a fatal weakness for any fighter which is an inability to recover from a hard shot. The Aldo fight was where this problem was firstly fully on display and recently the same problem was seen against Vera.
In his fights against Aldo and Vera Font encountered the same dilemma his output was good for the majority of the round, particularly in the early rounds but the power and variety of shots coming back at him was too much to handle making him lose those rounds. Font primarily a boxer does the majority of his offense on the feet yet does not appear to have the strongest of hands and this is a big problem especially for a fighter like Font when you are not able to take a punch well as if you are constantly in a state of survival you cannot get your offense off and score points or accumulate damage against your opponent for a potential stoppage.
An inability to take a shot is a problem in any division but especially in the bantamweight division where the top five including Vera are all extremely dangerous strikers with devastating power and versatility in not only their striking but overall game. Currently, it would not be a stretch to say Font could not compete with any of them and has reached his ceiling. This is not a blight on the 34-year-old but simply the current reality unless we see some big improvement from the New England native in his next showings.
Embed from Getty ImagesI think the next step for Font after a decent lay off should be a fight against a guy ranked lower than him like Song Yadong or Dominick Cruz before attempting to fight those higher than him to see where he is at as the damage taken over the last two fights have been significant.