This is how the Cage free match organization was born – says Mika “Immu” Ilmén

It was a wet, messy evening in 2004. Mika “Immu” Ilmén was “as if he had eaten hay” when he woke up in the morning. The night before, he had decided to kick the hell out of a bottle with his friend.

– The room was full of checkered papers with octagonal cages, octagons drawn on them, says Ilmén.

Ilmén ran GB Gym in Helsinki, one of Finland’s most famous martial arts gyms. In addition, he published Fighter magazine.

Ilmén, who excelled in lock-wrestling and was freelancing several times as a professional, decided to establish the Cage promotion with his business partner, whose logo had been painted on checkered papers on a foggy evening.

As Ilmén, who has been in the public eye a lot, has told through his books and interviews, crime was strongly present in his life in those days.

– We thought about what would be the thing that would knock the others off the board. It was that cage.

– Of course, my business partner’s money was used, and my own and stolen money also went into it. Back then there were no TV contracts, so the only way to make money was admission tickets and some sponsors. Unfortunately, I had to resort to selling VIP tables at events to bandits.

So Ilmén became a free match promoter.

– Fortunately, actors like me are no longer involved. Today it is a full sport.

The whole underworld at the vip tables

The Helsinki Sports Hall served as the main stage for several of Cage’s evenings. Ilmén arrived in his creamy white suit. Had to look like a gangster.

– At the end of the evening, I stuffed the bills into my Burberry bag and left for the city. I must have been a really annoying looking dude.

At the same time, Cage was Immu’s smokescreen for criminal businesses.

The bandits at the VIP tables came from different vest gangs. Ilmén himself is a former gun sergeant of the now defunct Cannonball MC.

– Almost all criminal organizations were represented – the most significant actors of the underworld.

– Once I heard a big guy sitting behind me say that he had a “cannon” with him just in case. Fortunately, nothing happened. The evenings didn’t look very good from the outside. There might have been 60-70 police officers in civilian clothes up there monitoring the VIP area.

Running Cage was not a profitable business. After about ten organized evenings, Ilmén started to loosen the strings, and very quickly the event became tidy and turned into a real sport.

When Ilmén was able to sell Cage, he moved more and more into “villain work”, as he puts it himself. In 2014, he received a ten-year prison sentence for a serious drug crime. Ilmén was released from Sörka prison in 2018.

From a helper to a clerk

Self-proclaimed Savolais-Panamanian One Silvera trained at GB Gym at the same time as the famous gym’s biggest names started appearing in Finland’s biggest magazines.

Fascinated by martial arts and music, the young man ended up working at Cage.

– My first event was Cage 8 or 9. I picked up fighters from the airport, took them to the locker rooms and cleaned up. For several years I was involved as an assistant and DJ.

– I really don’t remember dealing directly with Immun, but I do remember that I have picked up fighters from the airport in Immun Mersu, Silvera laughs.

In almost 20 years, the sport, and also Cage, has changed enormously. After Ilmén, Cage has been owned by several different people and entities.

The sports halls have turned into Helsinki’s cultural center, and Cage’s TV product has been polished to such an extent that it can be praised unhindered.

2015 was a watershed year for Silvera, when he properly joined the production side of Cage. Later that year, he became CEO.

Today, the rest of the crew of the evenings, established over the years, is bought from outside.

– If money was the most important motivator for me, I would have gone after it to run other jobs a long time ago, says Silvera.

– The whole of Cage is significantly greater than the sum of its parts, thanks to an established and passionate team. Along with the promotion of values, the greatest motivation for work is the privilege of being part of this team.

Values ​​at the center

After a complete transformation, Cage has become an organization run by a “fighting hippie”, as Silvera describes himself.

Silvera has set in stone the exact values ​​that the promotion represents and that the athletes cherish.

– Cage consciously tries to dismantle, for example, the narrative spread by the UFC, such as cockfighting, taunting the opponent and throwing bills.

– I know that entertainment is a way to sell, but I would like to address the audience in a different way. Athletes have already proven their toughness by training hard, fighting through pain and fighting. That hardness does not include threats and the school bullying narrative.

Mutual respect between the contestants is a visible part of Cage’s evenings.

So how much can Cage pay his opponents? Silvera laments that it still isn’t enough.

– It’s not worth denying it. The salary level is not good. Unfortunately, very few fighters are able to support themselves as a full-time combat athlete. It will only become possible closer to the UFC level.

Springboard

When talking about Finnish freestyle wrestling pioneers, many people first mention, among other things Anton Kuivanen, Tom Niinimäki, Sauli Heilimö, Mikko Rupponen and Toni Valtonen – maybe someone also the UFC’s first Finn, To Tony Halme.

However, few people talk about Ilmén, the founder of Finland’s longest-running promotion.

– I have been a robber. I carry that label, and that’s why I won’t get that kind of appreciation. And I’m not even without it. I think it’s great that Cage is still running, Immu says.

Of the aforementioned Kuivanen and Niinimäki and in addition to them Teemu Packalén and Makwan Amirkhani have cleared their way to the UFC from the domestic cage.

It’s been quiet since the last two. There are more and more competing promotions in Europe. Today, it is more likely that Cage will be pushed to one level bigger nights before the UFC contract offer comes to the table.

– Nothing really attracts me to the UFC other than the athletic level. PFL and One Championship are also good organizations below that, where they pay a very competitive salary and where the income distribution is fairer, Silvera reminds.

– I understand that the UFC is the biggest dream for many fighters. Getting there is possible for us. However, I wish Cage would provide the audience with inspiring stories. These are ordinary people who are capable of pretty amazing things in their field and show that surpassing yourself is possible if you just believe in your dreams and do things for them. I believe that such inspiring stories also change the world for the better in small steps.