The Z Report

A sports blog with Lance Zierlein

Lee Murray – My Favorite Thug


I remember watching a UFC event a few years back and an English fighter named Lee Murray was on the card and won fairly handily. During the fight, Joe Rogan tells a story of how Murray is a known for being a hard bloke and supposedly whipped Tito Ortiz in a street fight. Tito was the light heavyweight champ at that time so that was considered a big deal.

The story has been corroborated by several fighters since that time and it really should come as no surprise since Murray claims to have over 200 street fights in his life.

Murray was supposed to come back over to the states and fight again in the UFC, but he ended up having VISA problems if I remember correctly and he wasn’t able to make it back into the UFC despite being an electric fighter.

Fast forward to February of 2006 and Murray is involved in the largest theft of cash in British history stealing over 53 Million Euros (92 million dollars at the time) but is arrested shortly thereafter. Seriously, you could make a movie about this guy’s life.

So I’m reading Jared Barnes’ blog and see a story about Lee Murray trying to escape from prison:

Lee Murray has reportedly had a jail escape attempt foiled after small saws were found hidden in a plate of biscuits in his cell.

The London-born Moroccan-heritage fighter is in jail in Morocco on charges of cocaine possession. He arrived in Morocco after being identified as a leading suspect in a £53 million bank raid in the UK.

According to MMA Torch (citing The Wrestling Observer) “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.


Here are two videos of the piece that ESPN did on Lee Murray and his bank heist as well as a video of a pre-fight staredown between Lee Murray and Anderson Silva. Silva ended up winning this match, by the way.

Lee Murray on E:60 (Part 1)

Lee Murray on E:60 (Part 2)

Silva vs. Murray Staredown

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Lance Zierlein