Contingency Operating Base BASRA – Soldiers know that deployments take them to unexpected places, like when they run their first marathon, or finish a college degree, or when they use the time to get physically fit for professional mixed martial arts fighting.
The last one might not apply to most, but Capt. Eli Donker, 2nd Battalion, 150th Field Artillery Regiment, has a chance to test the Modern Army Combatives Program in the fires of the professional circuit.
According to Donker, once he returns home from his current deployment, he will again defend the Elite Cage Fighting Amateur Heavy Weight title -- Elite Cage Fighting being the largest MMA organization in Indiana -- but it will be his last amateur fight.
“My first professional fight is going to be in Nashville, Tenn., for Gameness Fighting Championships in May,” he said. “Based on that fight, they are going to determine whether or not I am ready to move up to EWC (Elite Warrior Championship) or the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).” The ultimate goal is to have a fight on television, said Donker. “I don’t consider myself to be the next heavy-weight champion contender,” he said, “but I would love to get a televised event that Soldiers can look at and say, ‘Hey, I do that training,’ and then walk with a little bit of swagger because that’s just us doing our job.”
“I’d really like to win that and let it be something we can all share in,” said the Fairbanks, Ind., native.
Donker realizes there is more than just him in the fight, and values that. “I have to give a lot of credit to the Red Bulls. My amateur fights determined I have the technical prowess, the skill, the talent,” he said, “but this deployment I really had to focus on getting in that next level of shape.”
Donker is grateful to the many Soldiers who share their workout and fitness knowledge with him, from a master sergeant body-builder and a sergeant first class “fitness fanatic”, to an “Ironman” on the officer staff.
“Without using this deployment to get into this kind of shape I never would have been able to make the jump to pro,” he said, “I really appreciate my brothers and sisters in the 34th. Being attached to those guys has really helped out.”
Donker weighs in at six foot, 255 pounds but through a regimented fitness plan is going to fight at a weight 15 pounds less.
A former Army rugby player, Donker took an interest in the role of effective hand-to-hand combat during his first deployment to Iraq in 2003 with the 101st Airborne Division.
He said the experience showed him that, while the Soldiers were very proficient with their firearms and crew-served weapons, Combatives was “something we needed to focus on.”
In 2006, he was again on Iraqi soil with the 101st and had since become a “second level” instructor in the Combatives program.
“My brigade really took the training seriously. It really made a difference and helped out in a lot of situations,” he said.
After returning home once again, Donker entered his first amateur MMA fight and won with a second round knockout.
It was a two-fold victory, because he not only had a win in the ring but also recognized that this was a way to test the Combatives program.
After winning a second fight, Donker said he began to consider taking his interest to the next level.
Eventually, he caught the eye of Ranger Up, an apparel company owned by current and former service members that sponsors the MMA group “Team Rhino.” Donker he is slated to join the team soon, he said.
Donker hopes the test of the Combatives program in the professional circuit will show that the techniques taught are able to stand up to other martial art disciplines. What he learns there will give him insight into how practical the program really is, he said.
“It adds a credibility,” he explained, “Mixed martial arts is the closest way to replicate actual combat, so I can get in there and know it’s going to work and know that what I am teaching Soldiers is going to work for them.”
MACP focuses on straightforward moves that can be performed quickly and have a “high tolerance” for different real-world battle situations, he said.
“You don’t have to be incredibly precise with them and that’s because of the gear, the battle fatigue, the nonstandard conditions,” he said. “You’re not in a ring. You’re on a concrete surface or up against a wall or inside a room.
“It kind of frustrates a lot of martial arts purists that combatives is sort of, as they view it, sloppy,” he said.
Donker also said that while MACP has defined positions and moves, the strength of the program is from the mentality that will arise. The culminating challenge for the first level of instruction is the infamous “clinch-drill” where Soldiers must achieve the namesake clinch-hold while starting outside of striking distance.
And the instructors do the striking. “Watching guys go from being scared to being bloodied and confident is awesome,” he said, “Clinch-drill day is my favorite day because you get to see Soldiers really understand, ‘That hurt, it was scary, but it didn’t hurt that bad, it wasn’t that scary and I’m still going to win.’”
“That attitude, whether it’s a firefight or a hand-to-hand fight or whatever is going on in deployment, it might save their life,” he said.
Donker advises that same philosophy to Soldiers considering a fight in the cage because it has helped him win.
“The basic principle is close the distance, gain a dominant position, and finish the fight, “he said, “The definition of a warrior is willingness to close with the enemy.”
“Those two things, I always stick to,” he said. “Not because it’s Army Combatives. I stick to them because they work. I’m nine- in- one using that fight plan, why would I change?”For the remainder of his time in country, Donker will continue to coach Soldiers in the informal classes on Contingency Operating Base Basra and is helping prepare a team of fighters for an upcoming all-Soldier tournament on COB Bucca in December.
After his deployment, Donker will go home to his wife and daughter and see his dreams of professional fighting realized.
Always commenting on the role of his fellow Soldiers, Donker was exuberant about the opportunity to apply his experience.
“I’m on the threshold of fighting professionally and that’s just amazing,” he said, “Being able to fight, and represent the Guard, represent the Army, it’s very humbling. It makes you want to work pretty hard.”
