By Greg Glassner
CP Senior Correspondent
Robbie Lillard, who grew up in Caroline County before his family moved to Louisa, will launch his professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) career later this fall.
“I’ve been pretty much in the gym for 4½ years,” Lillrd noted. His father Rob is one of his coaches and his mother and father are among his biggest backers.
Lillard played peewee football and wrestling locally but shifted his sights toward mixed martial arts in the eighth grade, a year after the family moved from Caroline.
My dad and I did a little bit of kick-boxing. My dad taught me pretty much what I knew in the beginning,” Lillard said.
Lillard has been competing in the cage since he was 15. In amateur competition, he compiled a 3-0 record in kick boxing, and a 7-2 record in MMA. Six of the seven wins came by “first-round finishes, where the referee stopped the bout because you have your opponent “in a very difficult position that could be dangerous,” Lillard explained.
During his amateur career, Lillard won two titles as a 17-year-old, one with Revolution Fight Series and one with “00 Fights” out of Ashburn, Va. In June he took his third amateur title at the Fight Night Challenge in Charlottesville.
His pro debut will be this fall in Richmond with Odyssey Fights. Lillard will be billed as “Big Nasty Rob,” although at a fighting weight of 155-pounds the cage name may involve a bit of hyperbole.
MMA is Lillard’s passion. Since graduation he has done some work at the North Anna nuclear power plant. He plans to make a living as a fighter.
He and his wife will live with his parents during the expected lean times as a professional rookie.
“My parents are very supportive,” he said. “Hopefully I will be making enough to support myself.”
Lillard’s older brother, Thomas “T.J.” Lillard still lives in Caroline County and Lillard still has quite a fan base here among the friends and neighbors who knew him when he was a boy.
(Robbie Lillard, center, with his wife Summer and mother Vonda) -Lillard Family Photo
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