Lee Murray

Lee Lamrani Ibrahim "Lightning" Murray (Arabic: لي العمراني إبراهيم موراي) (born November 12, 1977 in London, England) is a British-Moroccan mixed martial arts fighter. He is also a suspected bank robber linked to the £53 million Securitas raid.

Lee is from Buttmarsh Estate in Woolwich, South East London.

Mixed Martial Arts career

Lee amassed a 8-2-1 (1) [1]record in smaller promotions before receiving a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). In his UFC debut, he defeated Jorge Rivera by triangle choke/armbar in the first round. This was Murray's only fight in the UFC due to complications with his US visa as a result of ongoing criminal prosecution against him in the UK for assault after he attacked a man during a road rage incident. This led to Murray signing with the Cage Rage promotion, which was also short-lived due to injuries resulting from a stabbing preventing Lee from continuing his mma career.

Street brawls

Murray was allegedly 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 knocked Ortiz out.

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 British glamour model 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 was what saved his life.

Securitas Depot robbery

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.

Film biography

Time Inc. announced on 4 August 2008 that they would be making a film about Lee Murray's alleged role in the robbery, based on an article about him in Sports Illustrated called "Breaking the Bank". In addition to the robbery, the film will also concentrate on Murray's life, including his mixed martial arts career.

Mixed Martial Arts record

Template:Start box |- |style="text-align: center" colspan=8|8 Wins (4 (T)KO's, 4 Submissions, 0 Decisions), 2 Losses (0 KO, 1 Submission, 1 Decision), 1 Draw, 1 No Contest. |- | align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #f0f0f0"|Result | align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #f0f0f0"|Opponent | align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #f0f0f0"|Method | align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #f0f0f0"|Event | align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #f0f0f0"|Date | align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #f0f0f0"|Round | align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #f0f0f0"|Time | align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #f0f0f0"|'Notes |- | style="background: #ffcccc"|Loss|| Anderson Silva|| Decision (Unanimous)|| Cage Rage 8: Knights of the Octagon || 9/11/2004||3|| 5:00 |- | style="background: #ccffcc"|Win|| Jorge Rivera|| Submission (Triangle Armbar)|| UFC 46|| 1/31/2004|| 1|| 1:45 |- | style="background: #ccffcc"|Win|| Jose Landi-Jons|| KO (Strikes)|| EF 1: Genesis|| 7/13/2003|| 2|| 0:32 |- | style="background: #ccffcc"|Win|| Amir Rahnavardi|| KO (Punch)|| Millennium Brawl 8|| 9/22/2002|| 1|| 0:04 |- | style="background: #ccffcc"|Win|| Kama Boumna|| Submission (Armbar)|| Millennium Brawl 7|| 6/16/2002|| 1|| 0:20 |- | style="background: #ccffcc"|Win|| Gary Warren|| KO (Punches)|| MB 3: Independence Day|| 7/1/2001|| 1|| N/A |- | style="background: #c5d2ea"|Draw|| Chris Bacon|| Draw|| MB 2: Capital Punishment|| 3/11/2001|| 3|| 5:00 |- | style="background: #c5d2ea"|NC|| Danny Rushton|| No Contest|| Ring Of Truth 2|| 7/9/2000|| 1|| 4:00|| Rushton collapses due to exhaustion. |- | style="background: #ffcccc"|Loss|| Joe Doerksen|| Submission (Kimura)|| Extreme Challenge 34|| 6/17/2000|| 1|| 1:19 |- | style="background: #ccffcc"|Win|| Chris Albandia|| Submission (Heel Hook)|| Extreme Challenge 34|| 6/17/2000|| 1|| 2:23 |- | style="background: #ccffcc"|Win|| Mike Tomlinson|| Submission (Kimura)|| Ring Of Truth 1|| 3/12/2000|| 1|| 0:56 |- | style="background: #ccffcc"|Win|| Rob Hudson|| KO (Strikes)|| MB 1: The Beginning|| 12/5/1999|| 1|| N/A Template:End box

External links

• Lee Murray MMA record

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ar:لي موراي ja:リー・マーレイ