Battered, bruised, and partially blinded, Rob Font remains unbowed after losing to Jose Aldo on Saturday at UFC Vegas 44.

After the fight, the top-five UFC bantamweight Font said he still believes he can beat Aldo, but Saturday just wasn’t the night.

“The guy’s a legend. He’s tough,” Font said. “I [do] feel I can beat him. It just wasn’t my night. Hat’s off to him. … I know for a fact this will make me better.”

Rob Font undeterred by tough loss to Octagon great Jose Aldo

Aldo (31-7) extended his winning streak to three in the 49-46, 50-45, 50-45 decision win over Font (19-5). Font had swelling around his eye and said post-fight that Aldo landed several clean shots he simply couldn’t see coming due to compromised vision.

“I’ll be back,” Font said. “I know for a fact this will make me better, and I just went five rounds with one of the legends in the sport, and I’m going to get better off of this fight, for sure.”

Aldo graduated down from featherweight and seems to have found his comfort zone.

“I trained for this,” Aldo said after the win. “I want to be a champion in this division and I’m working for that. Rob Font’s a tough opponent. I respect him a lot but nobody’s going to stop me. We trained to become a complete MMA fighter. I want to be as complete as I can. This is the new Aldo that you’re seeing.”

Aldo had Font reeling several times throughout the bout, including running out of time to finish off Font in the first round. He also had Font in a rear-naked choke in the final round but Font refused to tap out and was saved by the final horn.

Aldo himself was dealing with significant swelling around his eye. He’s up for a potential main card return in early 2022.

–Field Level Media