Chad Robichaux has his sights set on accomplishing something no other Bellator fighter has done: Beat a Bellator champion in a non-title “superfight.”
The unbeaten Robichaux will have that chance Saturday when he faces bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky in a three-round fight at Bellator 41 in Yuma, Ariz.
“I’ve thought about that a lot and almost everyone I’ve talked to so far, that’s been one of the main questions. I’m going to the one to answer that question,” Robichaux said Tuesday on Bloody Elbow Radio. “Everybody’s wondering because none of these seeded champs have lost in a super fight yet and everybody’s wondering what’s going to happen, so I’ll make sure it gets answered next week.”
Robichaux, who also will participate in Bellator’s Season 5 bantamweight tournament, said the promotion hasn’t given him any type of indication what would happen should he upset Makovsky on Saturday night (9 p.m. ET, MTV2).
“I’m wondering myself,” he said. “I kind of want to know how they’ll handle it. You have to almost assume they expect the guys to lose when they bring these guys in like myself. We’re going to see on Saturday because there’s no way I’m walking out of there without a win. This is probably the most confident I’ve ever felt in a matchup. I really know I’m going to walk away with the victory on Saturday night.”
Robichaux (11-0 MMA) did not fight between 2004 and 2009 and this will be just his fourth fight back since returning from active military duty where he did eight deployments to Afghanistan between 2003 and 2007 as a member of Marine Force Recon.
“Because of the nature of my job, I wouldn’t leave for these eight month deployments, I’d do like three or four month deployments,” Robichaux said. “It was broken up well, but it’s still hard to be away from your family and not be able to communicate with your wife and kids everyday. It was definitely something that was a worthy sacrifice in my life and something I appreciate having the opportunity to have done and something I’ll always be real proud of.”
Clear of his military commitments, Robichaux has turned his focus to running schools and his fighting career. He opened Gracie Barra North Houston in 2007 and has three schools under him. He now teaches and trains full-time.
“When I came back, the sport had changed so much and everyone had gotten so much better,” Robichaux said. “I wasn’t naive to that. I realized I had some things to make up and catch up on, so I spent a lot of time working on those things.”
For this fight, he draws a fighter in Makovsky who has won six in a row and captured the Bellator bantamweight championship with a unanimous decision win over Ed West at Bellator 32 in October. Both fighters are slick on the ground and it should create an interesting matchup.
“I don’t think he brings anything to the table that I haven’t seen before,” Robichaux said. “I just come from a tremendous camp with so much experience within my camp. He is the champion and he has fought in bigger shows. He’s fought better opponents than me, but he hasn’t fought me. He can’t bring a résumé into the ring. It’s just me and him. I haven’t fought an opponent like him and he hasn’t fought an opponent like me. I understand that and I’m not quite sure he’ll figure that out until Saturday night.”
You can hear the entire interview with Robichaux, along with a chat with MFC welterweight champion Douglas Lima, on Tuesday’s edition of Bloody Elbow Radio.