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During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Rob Font revealed why he was forced to turn down the interim UFC bantamweight title fight at UFC 267.
While speaking to Ariel Helwani, Font said he had tested positive for COVID-19 not long before the opportunity, and couldn't replace Aljamain Sterling on the Abu-Dhabi-held card.
In the aftermath of his win over Cody Garbrandt, Rob Font was flagged by USADA for the potential use of a prohibited substance. However, it was later confirmed that the 34-year-old did not commit any violations.
Font stated that he and his entire team traveled to Texas for the final USADA hearing and after the trip, Font tested positive for Covid.
"We're going through this whole USADA deal. I decided to go to Texas and just kind of hang out and relax. I traveled to Texas and we set up the final hearing in Texas, me, Calvin. His sisters live out there, so we all went out there as a team, manager and coach Tyson was there. And we kind of set up one of the days for the hearing and then once we got cleared, it was like, perfectly hung out for a couple more days and the plan was to get back and obviously to get back to training and came back with COVID."
Rob Font went on to detail that he had to be sidelined for two-and-a -half weeks and was not able to do any sort of training.
It was at that moment Font and his team were contacted by the UFC. The No.4-ranked UFC bantamweight had to turn down the fight, acknowledging he wouldn't have been at his best.
"I had to be sidelined with two-and-a-half weeks of sitting around and doing nothing. Then we get the call, it was just bad timing, we did like, a mock kind of workout and try to really feel it out. This wasn't really feeling. It would've been a sloppy fight. You know, honestly, I just wasn't feeling, so I had to turn it down."
Check out Rob Font's interview on The MMA Hour below:
Rob Font will return to octagon action this weekend against Jose Aldo
Rob Font will be returning to the octagon this weekend for a huge fight against former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo. The fight will be Font's first since beating former 135-pound titleholder Cody Garbrandt.
Meanwhile, Aldo will be returning to the octagon for the first time since his UFC 265 win over Pedro Munhoz.
A victory for either man could see them move one step closer to a potential title fight in the near future. Former champion T.J. Dillashaw remains the favorite to fight the winner of Petr Yan vs. Aljamain Sterling 2, however, Font is definitely in the mix.
