Lee Murray: From Contender, to Just Con
I don't condone bein' a thug - hate it, in fact - but as a police reporter when I'm not doing MMA Explosion, I find the life and times of Lee Murray somehow intriguing, yet at the same time, pathetic. I mean, here's a classic case of the guy who was poised for greatness and threw it all away. Let me put it this way - we can all learn what NOT to do by looking at Lee Murray.
You may not know who Lee Murray is/was, but for a little while, he was a very promising middleweight from England. Nicknamed "Lightning" for his fast, yet also powerful punching, Murray carved his way through the competition in England, knocking out Jose "Pele" Landi-Jons and taking Landi-Jons' Chute Boxe teammate (and current UFC Middlewieght Champ) Anderson Silva the distance, losing by decision.
In July 2002, the night of UFC 38 in England, Murray, whose full name is Lee Lamrani Ibrahim Murray, allegedly knocked out Tito Ortiz in a street fight.
In the excerpt to follow, former UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes talks about the fight in his upcoming biography, "Made In America." Hughes talked with former coach Pat Miletich, who was there for the fight.:
"Are you serious?" I asked Pat.
"Hold on, it gets even better. 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."
"Then Tony Fryklund and I grabbed Lee and pushed Lee and said 'Get out of here!' And Lee said 'I'm sorry, I'll see you later,' and took off. And Tony Fryklund helped Tito to his feet"
OK, maybe knocking out Tito wasn't such a bad idea after all. It probably got Murray his one fight in the UFC, a submission victory over Jorge Rivera at UFC 46 - Supernatural.
However, Murray's street fighting got him in deep again, this time stabbed in a brawl outside the Funky Buddha club in London during a glamour model party on Sept. 28, 2005. Murray suffered a punctured lung and a severed artery. The doctor who performed the life saving surgery on Murray said he was resuscitated four times during the operation.
OK, so that's pretty stupid, you nearly lose your life in a street fight.
But, if you go to the next page, you'll see what Murray did to put his life into a real tailspin.
On Feb. 22, 2006, at least six men abducted and threatened the family of the manager of a bank in England known as Securitas Cash Management Ltd. depot, tied up fourteen staff members, then took the largest cash amount in British crime history, £53,116,760 (about US $92.5 million at the time of the robbery) in bank notes.
Lee Murray was believed to be one of those involved.
After the heist, reports surfaced that Murray had fled to Spain, but he later surfaced in Morocco.
But on June 25, 2006, Murray was arrested in the Moroccan capital Rabat, with friend Paul "The Enforcer" Allen. The arrests were a joint operation with British police, who wanted to question Murray about the Securitas robbery. Murray was arrested with friends who were found with a quantity of hashish and cocaine.
Murray was found guilty, and served an eight-month prison sentence in Morocco.
One major hurdle in extraditing Murray was that there is no extradition treaty between the United Kingdom and Morocco, so it appeared Murray might escape any charges he would face in England. But, in early February 2007, prosecution officials held talks in London over exchanging Murray, 29, for suspected terrorist Mohamed Karbouzi.
The following statement was released by the Moroccan Supreme Court on Feb. 24, 2007: "Arrested on 25 June 2006, Lee Lamrani Ibrahim Murray will be free Monday, for he will have purged the 8 month-prison sentence which he was served on Wednesday by the criminal court of Sale, near Rabat, after paying the fines (€27,000) inflicted on him."
The Moroccan Supreme Court postponed England's extradition request several times in 2007.
The last known correspondence from the Moroccan Supreme Court (in May), at least according to Wikipedia, was that they had delayed once again England's extradition request, in order to review a document submitted from Murray's father proving that Murray, who holds a British passport, is also Moroccan. "The extradition of Moroccan Lee Murray is not possible if one respects Moroccan law, because it blocks extraditing a Moroccan citizen regardless of whatever he stands accused of." Murray's lawyer said.
All right, so there's the sordid tale of "Lightning" Lee Murray - kind reminds me of the movie "Sexy Beast," except this one doesn't end with the criminal getting fat, and drinking booze poolside. Even if Murray is never extradited, I don't think he'll be enjoying life much. Something tells me he's too hardened to do anything else. What a waste.
