{"id":691,"date":"2010-01-22T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T05:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/?p=691"},"modified":"2026-03-15T23:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T04:28:07","slug":"quick-and-easy-money-the-story-of-lighting-lee-murray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=691","title":{"rendered":"Quick and Easy Money: The Story of Lightning Lee Murray"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><a rel=\"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/?p=691\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/?p=691\"><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-692\" style=\"margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" title=\"murray2450\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/murray2450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"232\" height=\"169\" \/><\/strong><\/a><strong>By Ryan Justason<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><strong>(Managing Editor\u2019s Note: Ryan Justason is our newest Feature Writer here on RSR and will be covering the world of the MMA. I, along with the rest of the team welcome him aboard!)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">On February 22<\/span><sup><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">nd <\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">2006 between the hours of 1:00 am and 2:15am UTC (London, England), seven masked and heavily armed men and another tied up man entered the doors of the Securitas Depot. The tied up man turned out to be Colin Dixon who was the Securitas Depot manager. All fourteen Securitas Depot employees who were there at the time of the robbery were shocked to see their boss tied up as Dixon yelled \u201cDo whatever they want!\u201d \u201cThey have my family\u201d. Sure enough the employees complied and it took the seven masked men 40 minutes to escape with the 53,116,760 Euros as they left everyone unharmed and locked up in cages. The 53,116,760 Euros then turned out to be the largest cash robbery in British history. The alleged mastermind behind this robbery is said to be none other than British <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Mixed Martial Arts<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> tough guy \u201cLightning\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Lee Murray<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nLee Murray was famous in South East London for his notorious <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">street fights<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> in which fellow South East Londoner Mixed <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Martial Artist<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> Mark \u201cThe Beast\u201d Epstein said \u201cI never saw him lose.\u201d As Murray was making his money in street Mixed Martial Arts, he decided to take his street brawling prowess to professional Mixed Martial Arts to make a quick buck. Although Murray did end up going professional, the street brawler in him never seemed to die.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nOn July 13<\/span><sup><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">th<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> 2002, at the after-party for UFC 38 which was the first UFC in the United Kingdom, Lee Murray and his buddies decided to crash the party. A party that was filled with a lot of boozed up Mixed <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Martial Artists<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> that contained the likes of Pat Miletech, <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">. Soon after a melee ensued with Lee Murray and <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Tito Ortiz<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> going one on one. Pat Miletech has since described the events of the brawl. &#8220;One of Tito Ortiz&#8217;s friends jumped on my back as a joke. A buddy of Lee&#8217;s thought it was a fight and jumped in,&#8221; he tells me. &#8220;Then it exploded.&#8221; &#8220;Lee took off his jacket. Tito did too. Tito threw the first punch and missed. Then Lee flattened him with a five-punch combo.I told him to get the hell outta there.\u201d<!--more--><br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nOnce word was getting around that the <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">British middleweight Lee Murray<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> had knocked out the then <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">UFC light heavyweight champion<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> Tito Ortiz, Murray was then getting the attention of the bigger shows like the UFC. After Murray\u2019s street brawl with Ortiz, he then racked up two professional mixed martial arts knock outs. These two impressive knock outs then lead to a three fight contract with the UFC. Lightning Lee Murray made his UFC debut at UFC 46 in which he made quick work of Jorge Rivera via triangle armbar in the first round. Sadly for Lee and the $100,000 contract he was sitting on, he would never be fighting in the UFC again due to an altercation that took place on Christmas Day 2003.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nOn December 25<\/span><sup><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">th<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> 2003, Murray was driving with his wife and child when a man hit his Range Rover. Murray then became irate as he was said to \u201cdisable\u201d the other man\u2019s vehicle as well as the other man. Once this incident was all sorted out, Murray could no longer compete in the UFC because he was denied a visa to work in the United States. Many who knew Lee Murray as a fighter knew he was tough but they had not known how much of a hot head he was. But if you were to know where Lee grew up and the people he hung out with, many would understand how the professional fighter could snap at any moment.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nLee Murray grew up in the tough area of South East London called the Barnfield Housing Projects. He was the son of a Moroccan man and an English mother. The Barnfield Housing Project area was a ghetto in which young boys would most likely end up running with crews and making the quick buck to survive. Murray was known around his neighborhood for always running away from the cops which caught the attention of future Mixed Martial Artist Mark \u201cThe Beast\u201d Epstein. In the mid 90\u2019s <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Mark Epstein<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> was the leader of the gang \u201cThe Barney Boys.\u201d Once the two became friends, Lee Murray became a member of The Barney Boys.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Barney Boys were a very well known gang in South East London. They were known for their street fights, knife fights and drug sales. The Barney Boys were said to have their hands in anything that could earn them the fast cash. Mark \u201cThe Best\u201d Epstein has even admitted shooting a man in the face over 200 kilos of cocaine. Lee Murray was no different in this aspect. Even after The Barney Boys started to fade away, Murray was said to have his hands in a lot of different baskets. This was said to be true even throughout Murray\u2019s career as a professional Mixed Martial Artist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nAlthough Murray made it the UFC, unless you\u2019re a big name like a <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Chuck Liddell<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> or a <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Brock Lesnar<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">, fighters generally don\u2019t make that much money. Which leads many to wonder how Murray was able to afford his beautiful suburban home as well as his Range Rover and Ferrari? How did Murray afford his flashy mink coats and silk shirts? Murray was said to always be looking for a way to fast cash and one of those ways to fast cash was selling drugs. Being as flashy, a notorious drug dealer and loud, Murray often found himself a target.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nOn September 21<\/span><sup><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">st<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> 2005, Lee Murray was hanging out at The Funky Buddha night club when he was approached by two men. Both of these men then attacked Lee with knives as he attempted to fight of the attackers. Lee was able to fight off the attackers while in the process losing his left nipple. Just like any tough guy, this didn\u2019t stop Lee from going out to the same club the week after.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nLee Murray lost his life a total of three times after being stabbed at The Funky Buddha a week after losing his nipple. Murray was at The Funky Buddha attending glamour model Lauren Popes birthday when some familiar faces noticed him. Once being noticed outside the club, a huge brawl broke out. Murray was stabbed several times even yelling at one point \u201cI\u2019m dying\u201d! Murray then ran to a nearby bus stop where he was later picked up by an ambulance. Due to all the blood loss, Murray died and was revived three times. After he was awakened for the third and last time, Murray was said to have motioned for a piece of paper to which he wrote one word \u201cwarrior.\u201d Although the warrior was alive, he did need hospital stay to get well. This was said to be the time period when Murray masterminded the plot to commit the largest cash robbery in the history of the United Kingdom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\">Four days after, Murray was nowhere to be found until British authorities received wind that he was in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Mark \u201cThe Beast\u201d Epstein later clarified that four days after the robbery, Murray was indeed in Amsterdam being protected by a Dutch mafia hitman on his way to Morocco. Murray was on his way to Morocco because he can claim citizenship due to the fact that his father is Moroccan. Soon after arriving in Morocco, Murray bought a $1.5 million Villa in the posh suburb of Souissi. Murray was arrested until it was proven that he was indeed Moroccan. Once proven that Murray was of Moroccan decent, he was released from jail. Murray who was virtually living up his gangster life, thought he was untouchable from any type of British arrest. This remained true although what Murray did not know is that he could be tried for his British crimes through Moroccan court.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nLee Murray was then re-arrested as a result of the British government\u2019s plea to try Lee Murray in Moroccan court. Murray\u2019s attorney has since said that if proven guilty, the most jail time he will serve is 10 years while his accomplices in the United Kingdom have received several life sentences. At 32 years of age, Murray is young and 10 years is not bad if he did in fact commit the robbery. Unlike other inmates, Murray gets special treatment. His cell is something similar to Pauley\u2019s cell from the Goodfellas Murray also gets lots of phone time. Lee is said to be working on his own life story in which Time Warner has bought the rights to. Also Murray continues to train Mixed Martial Arts inside the Moroccan prison walls and if he does get 10 years, 42 is not a bad age to make a post-prison Mixed Martial Arts debut.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Barry Livingston 360 Conversation: My Three Sons,  Movies, TV, Charles M. Schulz,  Peanuts &amp; More\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vPvZ9JUv9vY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #808000;\"><a style=\"color: #808000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.authorhouse.com\/en\/bookstore\/bookdetails\/232300-BOXING-INTERVIEWS-OF-A-LIFETIME\">Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By &#8220;Bad&#8221; Brad Berkwitt<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"wpforms-container wpforms-container-full\" id=\"wpforms-126533\"><form id=\"wpforms-form-126533\" class=\"wpforms-validate wpforms-form wpforms-ajax-form\" data-formid=\"126533\" method=\"post\" enctype=\"multipart\/form-data\" action=\"\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F691\" data-token=\"34630ff85b44fc64d4703242a2032773\" data-token-time=\"1777345399\"><noscript class=\"wpforms-error-noscript\">Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.<\/noscript><div class=\"wpforms-field-container\"><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-name\" data-field-id=\"1\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\">Name <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><div class=\"wpforms-field-row wpforms-field-medium\"><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-first wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-first wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][first]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">First<\/label><\/div><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-last wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][last]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">Last<\/label><\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-email\" data-field-id=\"2\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\">Email <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><input type=\"email\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][2]\" spellcheck=\"false\" required><\/div>\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4-container\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-type=\"text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-id=\"4\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t<label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" >Email Message Name<\/label>\n\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][4]\" >\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-textarea\" data-field-id=\"3\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\">Comment or Message<\/label><textarea id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][3]\" ><\/textarea><\/div><script>\n\t\t\t\t( function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tconst style = document.createElement( 'style' );\n\t\t\t\t\tstyle.appendChild( document.createTextNode( '#wpforms-126533-field_4-container { position: absolute !important; overflow: hidden !important; display: inline !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; z-index: -1000 !important; padding: 0 !important; } #wpforms-126533-field_4-container input { visibility: hidden; } #wpforms-conversational-form-page #wpforms-126533-field_4-container label { counter-increment: none; }' ) );\n\t\t\t\t\tdocument.head.appendChild( style );\n\t\t\t\t\tdocument.currentScript?.remove();\n\t\t\t\t} )();\n\t\t\t<\/script><\/div><!-- .wpforms-field-container --><div class=\"wpforms-recaptcha-container wpforms-is-recaptcha wpforms-is-recaptcha-type-v2\" ><div class=\"g-recaptcha\" data-sitekey=\"6LeyxF8eAAAAALCgKefmpigcK22wWdwPbUdyB_q8\"><\/div><input type=\"text\" name=\"g-recaptcha-hidden\" class=\"wpforms-recaptcha-hidden\" style=\"position:absolute!important;clip:rect(0,0,0,0)!important;height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border:0!important;overflow:hidden!important;padding:0!important;margin:0!important;\" data-rule-recaptcha=\"1\"><\/div><div class=\"wpforms-submit-container\" ><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"wpforms[id]\" value=\"126533\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"page_title\" value=\"\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"page_url\" value=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"url_referer\" value=\"\"><button type=\"submit\" name=\"wpforms[submit]\" id=\"wpforms-submit-126533\" class=\"wpforms-submit\" data-alt-text=\"Sending...\" data-submit-text=\"Submit\" aria-live=\"assertive\" value=\"wpforms-submit\">Submit<\/button><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wpforms-lite\/assets\/images\/submit-spin.svg\" class=\"wpforms-submit-spinner\" style=\"display: none;\" width=\"26\" height=\"26\" alt=\"Loading\"><\/div><\/form><\/div>  <!-- .wpforms-container -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ryan Justason \u00a0 (Managing Editor\u2019s Note: Ryan Justason is our newest Feature Writer here on RSR and will be covering the world of the MMA. I, along with the rest of the team welcome him aboard!) \u00a0 On February 22nd 2006 between the hours of 1:00 am and 2:15am UTC (London, England), seven masked [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[234,448,575],"class_list":["post-691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-england","tag-lee-murray","tag-prison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}