Rob Font was asked to step into an interim title fight in October.
When Aljamain Sterling pulled out of his bantamweight title rematch with Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen stepped in, many analysts, media members, and fans wondered why No. 4 ranked Font wasn’t the one that the UFC went to.
Well, we have the answer. The UFC did go to Font; however, a fight with COVID prevented him from adequately being able to train for the biggest fight of his career.
On Thursday, the top bantamweight contender spoke with journalist James Lynch and confirmed that the UFC matchmakers asked him.
“Yeah, man. I was, unfortunately. Obviously, we got the call, but I had just got off the whole COVID situation and wasn’t training. So, uh, I couldn’t jump into that fight. I was pissed, but you know, things happen for a reason,” Font told Lynch.
The No. 4 ranked fighter revealed that he got COVID in Texas.
“I shouldn’t have gone to Texas,” Font laughed. Font said he got COVID about a month ago and was out of action for about three weeks. He was had just been able to leave the house, and that is when he got the call.
Font tried to move the fight up a couple of weeks, but the UFC needed the fight to be in Abu Dhabi on ‘Fight Island,’ and he realized it wouldn’t be a smart move on his part, so he passed.
Font was happy that the UFC came to him with the fight and did not snub him. He revealed that they had two names, Sandhagen and himself.
“They pretty much said, ‘hey, we want to see if you want to do it, but we’re also offering it to Sandhagen as well.’ It was unfortunate that we had to turn it down, but it was pretty cool we had to turn it down,” Font said. “It kinda sucked because we weren’t sure if it was for the real title or the interim title. Once we found out it was for the interim, it wasn’t the worst, you know? I would have been doing it just to do it, and it wouldn’t have been my best performance.”
Luckily, he got another fight. He fights former featherweight champion Jose Aldo on December 4 in the main event in what could be a title eliminator.
“The Jose Aldo situation came along, and I was like perfect, this works out even better,” Font said.
Are you shocked Font turned the title fight down? Or was it the right decision?