Rob Font expects vintage Dominick Cruz – like WEC era – in UFC retirement fight

Rob Font has been around the block a few times over 15 years in the MMA game.

As such, he's run into all manner of opponents in his career: Fighters on their way up, fighters still trying to find their footing and even ones who presume to be on their way out. Next month, he has a meeting with one who has said he'll done for sure afterward: Dominick Cruz.

Font (21-8 MMA, 11-7 UFC) and Cruz (24-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) will meet Feb. 22 in the UFC Fight Night 252 co-main event at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Cruz, 39, has said it will be his UFC retirement fight after two years on the sidelines.

But Font isn't expecting a lesser version of the former UFC and WEC bantamweight champion. In fact, he's willing to throw his expectations of Cruz's fight shape back more than a dozen years.

"I'm not banking on his age to get me through this fight," Font recently told MMA Junkie Radio. "I'm expecting the WEC Cruz to come out there trying to take my head off. I do believe this is going to be one of the toughest fights I've been in for a while."

Font said he trained with Cruz for a couple sessions in 2024 while in Las Vegas for teammate Calvin Kattar's fight at UFC 300. Mutual coaching friends hooked it up before a Font-Cruz matchup was a reality. As such, Font said it wasn't a potential booking that was on his radar.

But what Cruz was able to show him in a brief amount of time, though, had Font's wheels turning about what he might be able to bring to the table if given longer opportunities.

"He's a smart dude. I've trained with him before, and I can tell you he's smart," Font said. "He was ahead of the game, most of the time, with his style. He's always studying the game. He's watching fights every weekend. He's studying for his job and all that. So it's not like I'm fighting some dude that's stuck in 2009. He's up to date with everything. This is going to be one of those types of fights that I've got to mature up and level up everywhere just to make sure I get this 'W.'

"I would love to get in there, get my hand raised, have a beer with him, wait a couple of weeks and then go back to training with him. ... I have nothing but respect for him."

Check out Font's full interview in the video above.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 252.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Rob Font expects vintage Dominick Cruz – like WEC era – in UFC retirement fight