Lee Murray

In June 2009, an attempt to escape Salé 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. 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 in Salé 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. He was convicted of the £53m crime in a Moroccan court in June 2010. Kent Police said Murray must serve 10 years in jail in Morocco for his involvement. This sentence was then extended to 25 years on 30 November 2010

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.

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 and would be seeking his extradition from Morocco. There is no treaty between the UK and Morocco, and the process was expected to take months. Later, Moroccan police revealed that Murray had also been charged with possession of "hard drugs". 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.

On 28 September 2005, Murray was hospitalised 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. 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.

On 11 September 2004 Lee fought future UFC middleweight champion Anderson 'The Spider' Silva in Cage Rage 8 for the vacant middleweight title. Silva won by unanimous decision.

Witnesses claim Murray was involved in a scuffle with then-UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz outside a nightclub in London after UFC 38 in July 2002, in which Murray allegedly fought Ortiz. Murray asserts he knocked Ortiz out- 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. Tito Ortiz however denies he was knocked out. Chuck Liddell has also stated that he did not see Tito knocked unconscious.

On 11 March 2001, Murray fought to a draw against Chris Bacon at Millennium Brawl 2: Capital Punishment; he followed that up with a first-round knockout of Gary Warren at Millennium Brawl 3: Independence Day on 1 July.

Murray would marry Siobhan on 24 November 2000, listing himself on their wedding certificate as a "professional fighter." Murray would then divorce Siobhan in 2008 while incarcerated in a Moroccan jail.

Murray had four professional fights in 2000; the first was a 12 March encounter with Mike Tomlinson under the banner of "Ring of Truth." Murray won the fight via a kimura submission in the first round, but it was in February 2004 that he would expand on some of the events surrounding the fight. Writing on a message board in a now-archived thread from the mixed martial arts website Sherdog, Murray told the story of watching Prince Naseem Hamed's fight at a pub the night before his own match with Tomlinson; when a patron stood in front of Murray and then accused him of stealing his seat after being asked to move, Murray allegedly knocked the man, and his friend who attempted to aid him, unconscious, followed by knee strikes to knock out a bartender who rushed to break up the fight. The following morning - and day of his fight with Tomlinson - Murray was unable to close his left hand. After taping the hand, Murray relied solely on his good (right) hand, stating that he "caught him [Tomlinson] with a few good rights...he was rocked so he took me down then I caught him in a keylock on the ground and won the fight...after that I went to the hospital and got my hand plastered up, it was broke in two places."

Murray's next two bouts took place on 17 June 2000 in a tournament fought at Extreme Challenge 34. Murray defeated his first opponent, Chris Albandia, by ankle lock in the first round. Murray would later say that he thought Albandia was a kickboxer because he was wearing Thai shorts, so he started the fight out with leg kicks. When Albandia surprised Murray by performing a single-leg takedown, Murray said he "sprawled and took him to the side of the cage where I was kneeing him and punching constantly. He dropped again and took me down, going for a leglock. So I grabbed his leg and went to trade leglocks with him. I cranked an achilles lock on and I think it must have snapped because there was a real loud crack. Even Pat Heard it in my corner and when Chris got up he couldn't put weight on it. So I won that one."

At some point in 2000, Murray travelled to Bettendorf, Iowa to train at the renowned Miletich Fighting Systems camp run by former UFC welterweight champion Pat Miletich. In an interview conducted before the Rushton fight, Murray stated that while at MFS he trained a "hell of a lot of ground work. And a lot of kickboxing too. I prefer standup. Well, I just prefer to strike really. I like to keep the fight standing up and punch. Mind you, I like to punch from the mount too. I like to strike."

Shortly after dodging arrest Murray was introduced to mixed martial arts, and he competed in his first fight on 5 December 1999 at an event called "Millennium Brawl" that was held at Hemel Hempstead Pavilion. His opponent was Rob Hudson, and Murray knocked him out in the first round, prompting event promoter Andy Jardine to say, "He was so quick they called him 'Lightning' Lee Murray."

Murray's girlfriend Siobhan gave birth to first child, Lilly Jane on 24 December 1998. 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 ending up in prison. 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."

Lee Brahim Murray-Lamrani (born 12 November 1977 in Greenwich, London) is a Moroccan-English career criminal, drug dealer, convicted bank robber and former mixed martial arts fighter. In 2005, his promising career in the Ultimate Fighting Championship was cut short, after he was stabbed multiple times in a Mayfair nightclub at reality star Lauren Pope's birthday party. He was arrested in Rabat, Morocco in June 2006 and sentenced to 10 years in jail in June 2010, for masterminding the armed Securitas depot robbery in Kent, UK where over $92 million (£53,116,760) of cash bank notes belonging to the Bank of England were stolen by Murray and his associates on 22 February 2006. It was the largest known cash robbery in the world during peacetime. After a foiled attempt to escape prison and a failed appeal, his jail term was extended to 25 years on 30 November 2010. He is currently being held at a prison in Tifelt, north western Morocco, and despite being incarcerated fathered a child from prison in 2010. In 2018, Murray in an interview stated he was training to fight in prison, and still planned a UFC comeback, with the hope of securing a pardon from King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

Barbara was a hairdresser and later a telephonist. On a holiday to Gran Canaria she met Lee's father, Brahim Lamrani, a kitchen hand from the southern Moroccan city of Sidi Ifni. The couple's first child, Lee would be born in St Nicholas Hospital, Plumstead, on 12 November 1977, and was initially raised by his mother while Brahim continued to live and work in the Canary Islands. Eventually he came to England and married Barbara in 1984 and in 1985 she gave birth to Lee's only sibling, Rkia.