Fight Path: Delivering pizzas helped Rob Font discover MMA

Rob Font was a pizza delivery guy.

It might not have been exactly what he had imagined for himself, but he was trying to save up some money to return to community college after a stretch during which he was dismissed form his high school and earned his GED.

On a usual call, he walked up to a house in the Tampa area that had the garage open. Some guys inside were doing what looked to him like some kind of athletic training, but a kind he hadn’t seen before. Two were working on submissions. Another was practicing arm bars.

“While I’m giving the guy the pizza I’m asking him about it,” Font told MMAjunkie. “They started to show me a few things.”

Soon, Font was in a gym and pushing his way into more and more challenging MMA classes. He has turned that passion into an impressive pro career, with a CES MMA featherweight title among his accomplishments.

Font, at 8-1, will try for his eighth straight win when he takes on Ahsan Abdullah on Friday at CES MMA 21 in Rhode Island. While not putting his title on the line, Font and his camp hope that the fight can be another step in what they see as a likely upcoming move to a larger promotion.

If that happens, the 26-year-old Boston resident will continue a path that completely changed direction once he met the fighters in the Tampa garage and, later, when he moved to the northeast to follow his longtime girlfriend and started his budding fighting career.

A loss in just his second pro fight helped teach Font about the commitment and skills necessary to become an efficient fighter, and he has learned them well. He has gone on to win seven straight times in the past year and a half heading into Friday’s bout.

“When I moved I was able to get away from some of the people and the club scene (in Tampa),” Font said. “That changed things for me.”

Military family

Font was born in Massachusetts, so in a way he has circled back home after a life spent living in numerous places. His parents were both in the Army (which is how they met), and life took them to Japan, Malaysia, South Carolina, Virginia, New York, Louisiana and Florida.

Font considers Tampa his home, because he lived there the longest, but he had childhood experiences in many places. His father would be forced to leave for long periods because of his duty, so Font spent much time with his mother, older sister and younger brother.

Because of his parents’ roles, he had given some thought to eventually entering the military, but he chose not to go that route.

“They told us that if we wanted to (enlist) that was fine, but if not that was OK too,” he said. “Things were strict in our house, but it wasn’t too crazy. My parents tried to get us involved in sports so we would have things to do to keep us busy.”

When he was in the seventh grade, he started a relationship with a girl from the northeast who would come to Florida every summer with her family. She eventually went to college and the University of Southern Florida in Tampa, but she had an itch to return closer to her home in Massachusetts.

By that time, Font had started his new interest in MMA, and soon such a move would benefit him.

Discovering a passion

After Font first met the fighters in the garage while delivering their pizza, he found out that a gym nearby offered a free week for trying out the classes. He was still a novice in the sport, though.

“The place Gracie Tampa, and I knew a little bit about the Gracie name, so I thought it would be the Gracies there,” he said with a laugh. “Then this short white guy comes out. So I went back to look it and saw how funny it was that I could’ve thought that.”

He began his passion in the gym and searched out tickets to local shows to be able to watch as much fighting as he could. After about six months, he had an opportunity on short notice to take a kickboxing fight, and it was his first lesson in preparing.

“It didn’t go well,” he said. “But I knew I wasn’t in shape and that I could get better, so it wasn’t discouraging for me. I saw what I had to work on.”

Not long after, he and his girlfriend made the move to Massachusetts, where he found a new gym. He took his first amateur MMA fight in the summer of 2009, eventually compiling a 4-1 record. He turned pro in December 2011, and the next spring took on Dez Green in Green’s MMA debut.

It was another loss that taught him.

“That showed me how important wrestling is,” he said. “I had to change how I was preparing.”

He did, with proven results. He won the CES MMA featherweight title in August and now takes on the 5-4 Abdullah hoping to keep his winning streak alive.

“He’s a good striker and wrestler, so it’ll be a good challenge,” he said. “That’s the kind of fight I need.”

Catching up

Last week, Alex White told us the story of his near death after accidentally drinking gasoline while on a family trip, that bullying that ensued because of his speech impediment and how those combined to give him a strong start to his MMA career.

White, the featherweight from Farmington, Mo., went on to improve his record to 9-0 with a first-round submission victory against Adam Rider at “Rumble Time Promotions: Rumble at the Chase” last weekend in St. Louis.