Lee ''Lighting'' Murray [Archive]

JFM_26

12-12-2009, 11:44 AM

Lee Murray is one of the true what if's in the sport of MMA.........

Lee had extremley heavy hands and was arguably one of the hardest hitting 185lb fighters of all time. Murray once said about his punching power ''I have always been a big puncher I weighed 155lbs up until I was 21 and could knock heavyweights out then, I have broken my hands so many times and had a lot of surgery on them, my boxing trainer calls me a freak I hit so hard''.

He was the first ever man to KO the legendary Jose ''Pele'' Landi-Jons in MMA. He done it at EF 1 - Genesis back in 2003.

Pat Miletich was also very impressed with Lee, Murray would often train there at the MFS with the likes of Matt Hughes. He said Lee had the potential to be champion. Murray also trained at one of UK's best camps in London Shootfighters, with the likes James Zikic and has also trained with Pride Vet Ninja Rua.

Murray combined extremley heavy powerfull hands with slick BJJ, heart and a good chin. His only weakness seemed to be his wrestling ability and takedown defence.

But Murray is best known for a fight he had outside the cage. Against the then UFC LHW Champion Tito Ortiz

Here's what eye witness Matt Hughes said about it.......

"So it's four o'clock in the morning and they had everybody leave the club, right? Well, the UFC had bussed us all over there but they didn't have a bus to take us back. It's down to Mark, me [Pat Miletich], Tony Fryklund, Chuck Liddell, Tito [Ortiz] and Lee Murray. Lee Murray's crew was still there, Tito's crew was also still there. I walked out the back door to go in the alley. Tito's buddy jumped on my back. He jumped on my back and acted like he had me in a choke hold, just messing around, you know? Then I felt him get ripped off of me. I turned around and Tony Fryklund had HIM in a chokehold, and was really choking him. The guy looked like a mouse that just got trapped in a mousetrap; his eyes were popping out and obviously he wasn't breathing. Tony thought he was actually attacking me – that's the only reason he did it. So I turned round and told Tony to let him go, and Tony let him go. Then Tito's buddy turned around and basically said ‘what the f*** are you doing?' to Tony. Well, when he said that, one of Lee Murray's buddies, that one guy who kind of took care of us all week long, thought this guy was actually trying to fight us, so he ran out of the crowd and cracked this kid with a right hand and knocked him out cold.... The entire alley erupted into a huge brawl. I was just standing there, and there were bodies flying all over the place. I was confused how it all happened, because it happened so fast. I was standing there with my mouth open like ‘what the hell is going on?' I looked over and Chuck Liddell was with his back against the wall, knocking people out that were trying to go after him. Then I looked over and there's Tito directly past me, taking his coat off, going after Lee Murray, and Lee Murray's backing up the alley taking his jacket off. Both their jackets come off, and Tito throws a left hook at Lee Murray and misses, and right as he missed, Lee Murray counters with, like, a five-punch combo, landed right on the chin, and knocked Tito out. OUT. Tito fell face-first down to the ground, and then Lee Murray stomped him on the face a couple of times with his boots."

Here's what Lee had to say about the situation.....

"I was speaking to him at fight, in the club, we was chattin. Pat and a few other guys were talking. We went outside and there was some commotion. I couldn't really see what was going on. Me and my friend were trying to break it with Pat and a few others and it kicked off. One guy tried to hit my friend and I jumped in and that's when Tito jumped in on me. I think the guy I stepped in on was one of his friends. Then he is coming to me. Pat and three other guys stepped between us. Then, his friend got knocked out cold. I was laughing, he seen me and took his jacket off. I took my jacket off, my watch off and put it in my pocket. He come running at me throwing punches and I smacked him up."

Lee Murray comments on Tito's excuse that he was drunk during their street fight: "We was both drinking. Tito was drunk, what about me? I was drinking vodkas and champagne all night. I was drunk as well. What does he think, I was sober and just finished a couple of rounds of shadow boxing and was ready? I was drinking all night and had dress shoes on as well. Dress shoes, what kind of excuse is that? If he was half a man, he'd come up with a better excuse than that. If that was me, you know what I'd have said? I'd have said, ah yeah, I was drunk, I scraped with a fighter and got a whaping. I wouldn't say I had dress shoes on and got rushed by ten guys."

Murray made his one and only UFC apperance at UFC 46 in January 2004. He defeated Jorge Rivera, who had won his last 6 fights and wins included Travis Lutter and David Loiseau.

Lee showed his slick BJJ skills and tapped him out with a Triangle Armbar in the 1st round. After the fight Murray called Ortiz out, who is sitting in the crowd.

This would be Murray's only UFC appereance. He was denied a visa to get back in the USA. Fights with the likes of Patrick Cote, Tito Ortiz, and Joe Riggs all fell through due to this.

There were also talk of Murray vs Lindland showdown at a Cage Rage event in the UK. Both had, had heated words and both wanted the fight. But it never came about.

Another impressive victory for Lee was when he knocked out Amir Rahnavardi in just 4 seconds. It took Gary Goodridge 7:22 to do it. A credit to just how hard Murray punched.

His last MMA fight was against argubaly number #1 P4P fighter Anderson Silva at Cage Rage 8 in Sep 2004. Lee gave his best, but was outclassed by Silva superior ability.

Do one things thats pretty shocking in the fight. Anderson actually shoots for a takedown on Murray, a very rare sight. Silva rarely if ever has try's to takedown someone down in his MMA career and is happy just to have a stand up fight.

But on 28 September 2005, Murray was hospitalized after being stabbed in a brawl outside the Funky Buddha club in London during the birthday party of Lauren Pope. He suffered a punctured lung and a severed artery.

According to the doctor who performed the life saving surgery on Murray he was resuscitated four times during the operation that saved his life. When thanked, the doctor remarked that Lee should thank the nurses who ran the bags of blood from the blood bank because that is what saved his life.

Murrays life is just one big rollacoster. And this isn't even the end.

On 25 June 2006, in a joint operation with Moroccan police, Murray was arrested at a shopping centre in the Souissi district of the capital Rabat for suspected involvement in the Securitas depot robbery. Moroccan police said they had to use "specialist techniques to arrest the suspects because they were specialists in martial arts and firearms" Kent Police said in a statement that they had been tracking Murray for three months. They are presently seeking his extradition from Morocco.

There is no treaty between the UK and Morroco, and the process was expected to take months. Later, Moroccan police revealed that Murray had also been charged with possession of “hard drugs”. An officer said this could complicate extradition proceedings because, in theory, Murray would have to serve time in Morocco first for any offences committed there.

On 27 June 2006 Kent Police confirmed the news of Murray's arrest in Morocco, and also stated that over 30 people had now been arrested in conjunction with the investigation.

In February 2007 it was reported that Murray could be returned to Britain in exchange for suspected terrorist Mohamed Karbouzi, who is wanted for questioning by the Moroccan authorities in connection with the 2003 Casablanca bombings.

In June 2009, an attempt to escape Sale prison in Morocco was made by Murray. Small saws were found in a plate of biscuits in Murray's cell by another prisoner who broke into it. Prison officials believe Murray was planning to cut through the iron bars of his cell window with the saws. To make the escape through the small window easier, Murray had lost a significant amount of weight recently through training hard and starving himself.

Murray was in a different cell at the time as punishment for being caught with a laptop computer (with internet access) and five kilos of drugs. Other prisoners at Sale held it against Murray that he was able to use his money to smuggle in items like these, as well as expensive clothes. The fellow prisoner who broke into his cell was doing so to steal some of Murray's belongings.

Murray was deemed a Moroccan citizen and released from prison on June 23, 2009

Lee Murray's freedom was short-lived. The ex-UFC fighter who is one of the most wanted men in the UK for allegedly masterminding a $92 million cash depot heist in Tonbridge, has been re-arrested in Morocco following the hearing that refused his extradition. Lee was indeed rearrested right away, because the British Authorities did put in a formal request to the Moroccan Authorities to have him tried in Morocco for the alleged robbery.

It's a shame. That Murray now sits in a Moroccan Jail. He had all the potential to be a great fighter in MMA........But madness got the better of him.

There is no dout a movie needs to be done on him........Could you ask for a more crazy lifestory?