The New England Cartel falloff should be studied in MMA gyms everywhere. At one point Font, Kattar and others were doing incredibly well and were incredibly prepared. They had quality wins over great opponents and were all on their way to meaningful rankings. Now here we are a few years later and none of them can defend takedowns. literally none. You want to beat someone from New England Cartel? Wrestle. Thats what will happen here. Phillips will be fats on the feet and mix in wrestling. Phillips is the pick and will likely make Rob look old and slow.
Rob Font
Rob Font is a gritty, tough and technical striker. He has a solid chin, but not a ton of power. He is primarily a boxer so he doesn't kick or wrestle often but he doesn't need to because his hands are clean, fast and he works in and out of the pocket before most fighters know what happened. He has fantastic volume at almost 6 significant strikes landed per minute and decent defense being hit by fewer than 4. He is coming off the loss to Figgy where he was taken down 4 times.
Kyler Phillips
Kyler Philips is a very diverse striker and a well rounded fighter over all. He can strike, he can grapple, and his feet are always moving which makes him difficult to hit and takedown. Most of the time Kyler does a very good job mixing things up but he is willing to slug it out to put on a show and that can be a problem. He has 3 performance of the night bonuses and is overall a rounded guy with plenty of cardio that he weaponizes. He is coming off the win over Pedro Munhoz where the striking volume was incredible.