WASHINGTON – Rob Font acknowledges he’s in for a tough test Saturday, but it’s not against the big name he was looking for.
After a couple of fights fell through, Font (16-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC) will finally return to action when he takes on Ricky Simon (15-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) at UFC on ESPN 7. He was initially scheduled to face Cody Stamann at UFC on ESPN+ 22 in June, but Stamann was forced out due to a shoulder injury and replaced by John Lineker.
It was a big opportunity for Font to avenge a previous loss to Lineker, but weight issues forced Lineker out, as well, and Font was removed from the card. Now, almost exactly a year after his most recent outing, Font takes on Simon on the same card as Stamann, a fight that Font was expected to be rebooked for.
“This is another good one, another good test,” Font told MMA Junkie on Thursday. “It just – he doesn’t necessarily have that big name. But whatever. It is what it is. It’s been hard for me to get a fight. I don’t understand how the Cody fight – we get the Cody fight in Greenville, (S.C.), he pulls out with a shoulder injury, and then they don’t rebook it. I don’t understand. But then they rebook him again on the same card (as me), but a whole different fight, which is – whatever.”
In his most recent outing, Simon saw an eight-fight winning streak snapped when he suffered a first-round TKO loss to Urijah Faber in July.
But Font doesn’t think Simon’s quick loss to Faber takes away from his abilities as a fighter.
“You lose to a legend like that, the way he did – it was real quick, too,” Font said. “It is what it is. He got caught early, got put away, but Faber’s an ‘OG.’ He’s been around, seen it all – so there was nothing that Ricky was going to throw at him that he didn’t see. (It) just wasn’t his night.”
