[8] In the first few years of his career, he trained with professional wrestling and mixed martial arts legend Dan Severn at The Beast Academy in Coldwater, Michigan, before relocating to Team Jorge Gurgel in Cincinnati, Ohio.
[12] An upstart, Zachrich trained for two years under the tutelage of Severn and Jorge Gurgel's team, before accepting a last-minute offer to compete in an amateur bout in early 2006.
Then one day, I met an MMA guy when I moved back to Defiance, Ohio, [and] started training with him for fun and after a few months, someone needed a last minute fill in and I said yes.
[13][14] On April 15, 2006, he made a successful transition to professional mixed martial arts, as he submitted Cliff Perillo with strikes at the Ultimate Fight Series.
[15] At 1–0, Zachrich continued his slow-and-steady climb up the divisional rankings, and would collect another victory on May 6, 2006, in the form of a thirty-one second TKO of Micah Bender in the preliminary portion of FightFest 3.
[18] After capturing Xtreme Fighting Organization's middleweight championship with a vicious first-round knockout of mixed martial arts journeyman William 'Bill' Hill, the UFC announced that Zachrich would be one of the sixteen Middleweight competitors set to take part in the seventh season of their hit reality show, The Ultimate Fighter, hosted by coaches Quinton Jackson and Forrest Griffin.
[27] Zachrich took the fight to the ground early on and submitted Hines with a keylock in the first round, and with the victory, garnered the attention of Indiana based organization, MMA Big Show, who announced that they had signed him to a multi-fight deal on October 21, 2009.
[30][31] It wasn't until March 24, 2010, that it was announced that Zachrich had been signed by Bjorn Rebney's upstart mixed martial arts company, Bellator MMA.
[32] Zachrich made his first and only appearance for the promotion at Bellator 16, and was matched-up against World Extreme Cagefighting veteran Eric Schambari in the middleweight tournament quarter-finals on April 29, 2010.
Zachrich faced Nick Kraus for the inaugural Ultimate Victory Challenge middleweight title at UVC 20: Clash at the Coliseum on August 4, 2012,[37] winning the bout by unanimous decision.
[54] Zachrich would earn his first UFC victory with a dominant unanimous decision verdict over Vasconcelos, effectively outworking his Brazilian counterpart on the feet and showing improved takedown defense.
[55][56] He then faced touted promotional newcomer and expert Judoka practitioner Dan Kelly at UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Bisping on November 7, 2014.
[62] In a post-fight interview with Cage Passion Media, Zachrich said that he simply took the fight to keep himself busy and was already planning on returning to mixed martial arts, but didn't rule out the possibility of taking another boxing bout in the future.
[62] Following his release from the UFC in 2015, Zachrich made his return to boxing on January 15, 2016, scoring a TKO over the debuting Gary Vandyne at the Hollywood Casino in Columbus, Ohio.
[67][68] In 2017, Zachrich started a new position as a sales representative for the Columbus, Ohio branch of Stryker Corporation, a Fortune 500 medical technologies firm originally based in Kalamazoo, Michigan.