From Wikipedia
Lee Lamrani Ibrahim "Lightning" Murray is an
English-
Moroccan mixed martial artist and convicted bank robber. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail in June 2010 for masterminding a 2006
£53 million armed raidin
Kent, England.
[1] His term was then extended to 25 years on 30 November 2010.
[2]
In comments made to
Sports Illustrated in April 2008,
UFC president
Dana White said, "He (Murray) is a scary son-of-a-bitch. And I don't mean fighter-wise."
Witnesses claim Murray was involved in a scuffle with then-UFC light heavyweight champion
Tito Ortiz outside of a nightclub in London after
UFC 38 in July 2002, in which Murray allegedly fought Ortiz. Murray asserts he knocked Ortiz out
[7]- a claim substantiated by
Matt Hughes in his book "Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History" (pg. 168), as well as Pat Miletich during an interview with ESPN.
[8] Tito Ortiz however denies he was knocked out. Chuck Liddell has also stated that he did not see Tito knocked unconscious.
[9]
On 28 September 2005, Murray was hospitalized after being stabbed in a brawl during the birthday party of British glamour model
Lauren Pope. He suffered a punctured lung and a severed artery.
[10][11] 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 was what saved his life.
Murray had a difficult relationship with his father, who was often drunk and described as a "frightening, violent man" who was "volatile and domineering."
[3] Largely absent from the first seven years of Lee's life, Brahim demanded respect and obedience from his son, at one point garnering a warning from police for mistreatment.
[3] Eventually, Lee began to fight back against his father, with Lee's former next-door neighbor describing an incident where Brahim "actually went and hit Lee and Lee snapped, just turned round and knocked his Dad clean out...once he realized he could take down a big man like that I think that's what changed Lee into the man he is now - a thug."
[3] The relationship between father and son eventually grew so tempestuous that Brahim felt staying at home would result in either he or Lee killing the other, so he moved out.
[3] Barbara Murray was then left to raise Lee and Rkia largely on her own, and moved back to the Abbey Wood Estate by getting a council house on Grovebury Road around the corner from her parents.
[3]
At this time Lee began attending Eaglesfield Boys School, which is where he would meet his eventual best friend and partner-in-crime, Paul Allen.
[3] Murray - who does enjoy reading and puzzles - was a subpar student, and what little talent he did exhibit was in football, although he failed to make the school team.
[3]Murray's teachers found him to be unmanageable, resulting in his expulsion and eventual enrollment at
Woolwich Polytechnic School to complete the statutory years of his education.
[3] By then Murray was living life on the streets, with stealing and drug-dealing a part of everyday activity; he and the Buttmarsh Boys were allegedly in daily contact with Nigerian drug dealers who operated at Plumstead train station, and an eventual turf war broke out that saw Murray and his friends emerge victorious, leading to their inheritance of the local drug trade.
[3]
Murray would eventually be convicted of possession of cocaine and marijuana, in addition to being named in the
Old Bailey as a notorious London drug dealer who employed Paul Allen as his right-hand man in addition to a network of drug runners.
[3] One of Murray's best friends from this time was a local ruffian and future mixed martial artist named Mark "The Beast" Epstein, who claimed that he and Lee sold
crack cocaine and that Murray "made a lot of money from that."
[3] Murray also proved himself adept at the more violent side of selling drugs, typically in order to control territory and make sure customers pay.
[3] Murray himself claimed that "some people would probably say I was a bully, but a bully to me is someone that goes for easy targets and people who can't fight back. Me, I went for all targets."
[3] Murray was known for punching people almost at random in the street, as well as habitually harassing a man who ran a local corner shop.
[3]
Murray was soon sent to the
Feltham Young Offenders Institution, the first of several custodial sentences for relatively minor offenses such as assault and thievery; he also served time as a juvenile in Dover and
Norwich as well.
[3] Upon emerging from Feltham, Murray began attending the gym, lifting weights and drinking weight-gainer shakes in order to add bulk to his lanky, 6'3" frame.
[3] Joining him at the gym was Paul Allen, who by then was known as "The Enforcer", presumably because he assisted in enforcing Murray's control over drug-dealing in their small swath of south-east London.
[3]
Murray and Allen were soon using steroids and spending the money they earned from selling drugs on cars, typically of the big, flashy variety.
[3] The police stopped Murray regularly, and because they suspected he was a drug dealer attempted to place an informer in his group but failed to acquire sufficient evidence to prosecute.
[3] Murray was contemptuous of the police, often mocking and intimidating them on the streets, sometimes even following police officers around in his car.
[3] Some officers at Plumstead Police Station were afraid of Murray, and there was even a rumour within the station that certain policemen preferred not to confront him, with one stating that "he's a very dangerous man."
[3]
Murray's girlfriend Siobhan gave birth to his first child, a daughter named Lilly Jane on 24 December 1998.
[3] Just weeks later Murray was caught up in a turf war with rival drug dealers that led to the arrest of Epstein and more than a dozen others, many ultimately ending up in prison.
[3] Murray, however, got "clean away," with Epstein saying that "he was the only one that slipped through the net. I mean, lucky boy! But he's always been lucky...I went to prison for three years."
[3]
Murray would marry Siobhan on 24 November 2000, listing himself on their wedding certificate as a "professional fighter."
[3]
Murray would then divorce Siobhan in 2008 while incarcerated in a Moroccan jail.
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