Issue 047
March 2009
Emile Coleman is one half of the promoting team behind the successful Liverpool-based show, Cage Gladiators. During the summer of 2008, Emile took part in the filming of the BBC show Million Dollar Traders, which airs in the UK in early 2009. Emile was one of eight people, selected from thousands of applicants, to enter a reality TV show where contestants would manage a hedge fund with $1million of real money.
Can you give us a little background as to your involvement with the show?
Six thousand people applied and it was whittled down. We went through intensive training which is worth £20,000 alone. They were flying people in from all around the world, including the head of HSBC bank. We were given one million dollars to trade between the eight of us and we became a hedge fund. It had never been done before and was a unique experiment. What was interesting was that everyone except me were Oxford or Cambridge graduates. I was the only one who wasn’t like that. They loved the duplicity of my life, my teaching and being an MMA promoter.
You come from a very different background to the other contestants.
A completely different background; primarily I’ve been a promoter since I was 16 years of age. I’ve spent 15 years working in radio stations, clothes brands; I’ve done loads over the years, but it’s only in the last three years I’ve moved into MMA. This was a completely different environment than what I was used to.
It was a tough selection process, so why did they take you onto the show?
It’s hard to answer that question without sounding like you’ve got an ego. When we were picked, Lex Van Dam, the guy who put the money up to be traded, said I was his secret weapon. Lex said there were two things you needed to be successful: you needed to be excellent at maths and you need to be able to handle stress. They thought I had those characteristics.
How does the show play out? What was the day to day stuff you had to do?
Well it was one million dollars of real money. No one in the outside world knew we weren’t a real hedge fund. Our daily routine was: up at 5am, in the office for 6am, morning meeting at 7am. We started trading at 7.50am on the British markets, finish trading on those when they closed, and then right through onto the American markets, finishing just before 9pm. That was repeated five days a week for two months, and right in the middle was Caged Gladiators, which I had to come home and promote.
What did they make of this tattooed, shave-headed Scouser who does ‘cage fighting’?
I became the leader in the end because I was the most honest of all of them. I would be the one who helped people. I think maybe how I am really helped me; I’m quite a strong individual and I can deal with things, and that’s key to what goes on in the programme as well.
What have you taken away from the whole experience?
I don’t actually like exposure. I never wanted to be on TV; the only reason I did it was to spite my girlfriend who said to me I should do it but I wouldn’t. I learnt I could trade. While all the hedge funds were losing 10%, we did much better than that. It was at the start of the financial crisis, you’ll see as it goes on it went crazy. It’s the first time cage fighting has been on prime-time BBC, which is a good thing for UK MMA as a whole. Hopefully we’ll give cage fighting in the UK a different face.
So what about transferable skills? Anything that will help Cage Gladiators?
I learnt to make money, in that I could trade. The business training was unique and to such a high standard that I’ve taken a lot away from it and into our business model, which holds us in good stead for 2009.
And what about now you’re done? How has life been since the show?
I’ve done more press after the show than any other contestant and it’s been a great opportunity for me to talk about MMA. It’s good to be able to represent MMA in a different light and I feel quite honoured and proud to be able to do that.
Million Dollar Traders airs on the BBC from January. Cage Gladiators’ next show is on 7th March in Liverpool. For more info go to www.cagegladiators.tv.
