New England bantamweight finisher Rob Font aims to take top contender Raphael Assuncao’s place in the pecking order Saturday night at UFC 226 in Las Vegas.

Rob Font’s interest in mixed martial arts began during his days as a pizza delivery guy in Tampa, Florida.

Dispatched to drop off some pies one day, he rolled into the driveway and saw a group of guys doing jiu-jitsu in the garage and started asking questions while in the process of completing the “money for munchies” transaction. Seven years, 18 fights and a move back to New England later, the 31-year-old bantamweight is a couple of days away from the biggest fight of his career – a showdown with top contender Raphael Assuncao this weekend at UFC 226 in Las Vegas.

“I’m on the verge of a huge fight – the biggest fight of my life – so I’m sure glad I delivered that pizza,” laughed Font, speaking with FanSided late last week.

While the origins of his interest in the sport are humorous, Font has proven he’s no joke inside the cage.

Arriving in the UFC four years ago on a nine-fight winning streak, the former CES MMA standout earned back-to-back stoppage wins before getting hustled into a clash with John Lineker at UFC 198 in Curitiba, Brazil. Two more finishes followed before he returned to Brazil and got a little overzealous in a bout with Pedro Munhoz that ended with him getting caught in a guillotine choke late in the opening round.

Earlier this year, the Massachusetts native got the opportunity to compete at home, stepping in against Thomas Almeida as part of the preliminary card at UFC 220 at TD Garden. After an entertaining initial five minutes, the former pizza guy sent the crowd into hysterics, connecting with a head kick and follow-up punches to put away the former hyped Brazilian prospect.

It was a near perfect performance, not just for Font, but the entire New England crew that was assembled in Boston.

“It went perfect,” said Font, who pushed his record to 15-3 with the victory. “We had the OGs in the back with us – all the Mass fighters like (Greg) Rebello and (Joe) Lauzon, plus some young fighters that are up-and-comers and Kyle (Bochniak), Calvin (Kattar) and myself fighting and we all won. It was a great night. We all knew exactly what we had

to do. We all talked about what we wanted to do and we all did what we wanted to do. It went real smooth.

“The only way it could have went better is if I won a bonus,” he added. “I didn’t get it, but Calvin got it, so I made him buy me a couple of drinks. Other than that, it was smooth and perfect.”

Following the contest, Font threw out Aljamain Sterling’s name as a possible opponent, believing a pairing with the Top 10-ranked New York product would be a logical follow-up to his fantastic performance against Almedia. However, the Serra-Longo Fight Team member got booked against Brett Johns in April, leaving Font unsure whom he would face next.

But all that changed as he was making the trip to Brooklyn for Kattar’s fight at UFC 223.

“We were driving down to Calvin Kattar’s last fight and I got the email from Sean Shelby asking if I wanted to fight Raphael Assuncao,” explained Font. “Of course I’m going to say yes and hopefully he takes it.

“I’m not saying he’s scared or anything,” he interjects, eager to qualify his comments. “It’s just I’m ranked 11th and he’s ranked third. I figured he would want to fight for a title, so he wasn’t even on my radar; I wasn’t thinking about Raphael Assuncao.”

A couple of days later, word came back that the Brazilian veteran had accepted.

“I was like, ‘Perfect! He just f***** up’ because I’m taking all that he has.”

What Assuncao has at the moment is a spot in the upper echelon of the 135-pound weight class and a very good case to face the winner of the upcoming championship rematch between T.J. Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt, which headlines UFC 227 next month in Los Angeles.

“If everything goes smooth, I have two big fights I could potentially get after this fight.”

The 35-year-old is 10-1 since moving to bantamweight seven years ago, splitting a pair of bouts against Dillashaw while adding victories over divisional fixtures like Munhoz, Bryan Carawy and Sterling along the way. When former World Series of Fighting champ Marlon Moraes debuted in the Octagon last summer at UFC 212, it was Assuncao who welcomed him to the UFC cage for the first time, coming away on the happy side of a split decision verdict.

Moraes has since gone on to earn a trio of wins, including a 33-second finish of Jimmie Rivera last month in Utica that vaulted him into the top spot on the list of contenders in the bantamweight ranks. But with Assuncao coming out on top in their head-to-head battle and having a history with Dillashaw, the Alpharetta, Georgia-based standout has a compelling argument for being next in line himself.

And Font sees this weekend’s matchup as a perfect opportunity to usurp his position in the pecking order.

“A lot of people believe he should be fighting for a title,” he said of Assuncao, “so if I beat a guy that people believe should be fighting for the title, then I want that title fight. He beat Moraes and Moraes is buzzing right now, doing a lot of good things, so I feel like I have a good case after I win this fight of getting a title shot over Moraes or fighting Moraes.

“If everything goes smooth, I have two big fights I could potentially get after this fight.”

While Font always prioritizes the finish and has earned stoppages in each of his first five UFC victories, he knows putting Assuncao away isn’t easy and acknowledged that getting the win this weekend is his first priority, even if it means keeping things pretty basic.

Because as much as a finish would be ideal, this is the kind of fight where simply coming away with a victory is going to open a lot of eyes and send shockwaves through the division.

And Font fully believes he’s going to do just that on Saturday night at UFC 226.

“I do have to be comfortable going in there and just winning the fight, even if I have to just jab him for 15 minutes straight,” admitted Font. “That’s one of my flaws is I get bored and I just want to hurry up and get it done, but I do have to be patient.

“But I feel like I have to make a statement to keep my name out there for that title shot and I feel like I have enough power to where if I can land on him, I can put him away.

“What he has is experience – he’s been there and fought everybody in the world – but he’s not there anymore,” he added. “He finished his last fight, but before that, he was kind of squeaking by and doing his thing, but I feel like I’m the guy to put him away on Saturday night.”