Ardmore Police Department Sgt. Adam Eller will make his MMA debut this weekend on a big stage.

Eller, who serves as the department’s defensive tactics instructor, will compete in the 10th Annual Smoke & Guns charity event at the BOK Center in Tulsa Saturday evening. He has drawn Curtis Baldinger, a firefighter with the Vanoss Fire Department.

“What drew me to the Smoke & Guns event is I get to combine both of my worlds together,” he said. “Both my passion for law enforcement and my passion for martial arts. These have really been my two consistent things for several years. Now, there is one event where I get to combine them both. Represent my agency and represent my training and put it together for one night and I thought that was pretty cool. I want to be a part of it.”

Proceeds from Smoke & Guns go to the Special Olympics and the Oklahoma Firefighters Burn Camp. Eller said there will be approximately 6,000 in attendance.

It will be, by far, the most people Eller has competed in front of. While he has competed in Jujitsu competitions, Saturday night will be his first in MMA.

“I have sparred in MMA, but I have never been in an octagon in front of thousands of people watching,” he said. “That is going to be a little stressful, but I am more excited than nervous about it.”

Growing up in the martial arts

Eller’s love of martial arts dates back to when he was five years old. He remembers watching the Power Rangers on television. From what he saw on television, the Power Rangers went to the community center and did martial arts there. As a result, he bugged his mother to take him to the community center so that he could take karate lessons.

“She wound up enrolling me in Taekwondo classes,” he said. “So, I started Taekwondo when I was five years old.”

Eller took the lessons with his brother and reached second degree black belt by the time he was 21-year-old. He said martial arts has a number of benefits that include both physical and mental health.

“Growing up, obviously the self-defense aspect,” he said. “Being able to walk around not being a victim and being able to handle yourself if need to. Also, there is a lot of things that came with that, growing up in martial arts. The people you surround yourself with, everybody has like goals. Everybody wants to better themselves, everybody wants to push you to be better.

“It is just a lot of great minds in that type of environment. And there is something about being able to achieve different levels in the sport.”

Eller was also looking for a career as he earned a degree in criminal justice. He found what he was looking for through an interaction with the Fort Worth Police Department.

“I originally wanted to go to the military or something like that,” he said. “I was looking at my options and I wound up doing a ride-along with Fort Worth PD and I saw what they did, and it was a lot different than what I was used to seeing in my hometown. I thought that was pretty cool and wanted to be a part of that.”

Eller went to the police academy and was introduced to Jujitsu, which differs from Taekwondo in that it is a grappling martial art, compared to striking with your hands and feet.

“So, in the police academy, our instructor was a Jujitsu black belt, and I got introduced to it,” he said. “I thought it was pretty cool, something I had never seen before. I tried going back to Taekwondo and it just wasn’t the same. I started Jujitsu a couple of years later and I have been doing that for about eight years.”

Eller said Jujitsu has been especially important in his role as an officer. It allows officers to control a suspect with leverage and positioning rather than striking them. He said it is a huge motivator in terms of keeping with it.

“I always tell people in law enforcement that, A, they training in Jujitsu because it could save their life one day,” he said. “And, B, is because you get the same kind of camaraderie, same kind of environment.”

Competing in Smoke & Guns

Eller said he wants to make the department proud and make it look good Saturday night as he represents it in Smoke & Guns.

“I am very thankful that the department supports it,” he said. “There are a lot of people that don’t get to do the event because their department does not support it.”

Competing in MMA will allow him to combine what he has learned in Jujitsu and Taekwondo. In preparing for Smoke & Guns, he has put in a lot of behind-the-scenes training as people have provided support to make it a successful and memorable evening.

“Everybody is just going to see that six minute fight, but they didn’t see the two months of sacrifices with the family, helping my train,” he said. “People just traveled from hours away to come give me one-on-one training just to support me and the cause. All my training partners that have worked with me. We have been training daily.

“There is a lot of pressure. A lot of people I don’t want to let down, a lot of people that have put time, money and dedicated their personal time.”

General admission for Smoke & Guns is $30 with tickets available for purchase on Ticketmaster.com.