(The most notorious thief in MMA history chats cageside with Lee Murray.)

Lee Murray just can’t leave well enough alone. The former UFC/Cage Rage fighter and cash-heist mastermind has been in a Moroccan prison since 2006 after first being locked up on drug-possession charges, and is currently serving a 25-year sentence for his role in the Securitas kidnapping and robbery. Since then, we’ve heard stories of an escape attempt and the discovery of drugs and a laptop computer in his cell, but this shit right here takes the cake:

The cage-fighting crime boss behind the £53m Securitas heist has been moved to a high-security unit and stripped of prison luxuries. It comes after the Sunday Mirror revealed that Lee Murray, who is behind bars in Morocco on drug charges, fathered a child behind bars. Prison chiefs were furious after learning that he flouted rules by sleeping with a woman visitor who was not his wife.

Murray, 32, was moved to a tougher unit of Kenitra prison, near Rabat, and his mobile phone, television and DVDs were confiscated. It is believed that his right to have visitors has also been withdrawn…

(“I’ll have that technicality served with a nice chianti and some fava beans.”)

According to a report from London’s UK Mirror, Lee Murray and his co-accused in the 2006 Securitas depot heist could be headed back to court for a retrial and there’s a good chance that they could win this time around.

The reason for the latest development is that a  forensics investigator in the case who allegedly collected DNA belonging to the accused from latex masks made for them by a local studio to wear as disguises in the robbery, has been found guilty of disposing of key evidence in another case. If the defendants’ lawyers can argue that there’s a reasonable doubt as to whether or not she could have done the same while collecting evidence for their cases, the charges against them could be dropped.

By law, the Kent Police were required to inform the lawyers of the gang jailed for the record-breaking estimated $85 million (USD) heist about their officer’s mistake and guilty finding.

(Spit-bags: The sure sign of a bad time. Photo courtesy of TMZ.)

By Ben Goldstein and Jason Moles

The rule applies in any profession: For every law-abiding nice-guy, there’s an unstable son-of-a-bitch who you’d never want to leave your kids alone with. In honor of Breaking Bad: The Complete Third Season being released on DVD and Blu-ray, we decided to take a ride through MMA’s shadowy history of assault, robbery, vandalism, drug-smuggling, and other nasty behavior — the most infamous examples of fighters living dangerously and paying the price…

For more thrills, check out the latest Sony Action Unleashed DVDs!

#16: Jeff Monson
Arrested for: First-degree malicious mischief; assault on a female and injury to real property

It’s never a good idea to have evidence of your law-breaking published nationally. In a bizarre lapse of judgment, heavyweight veteran Jeff Monson was busted after he allowed ESPN the Magazine to photograph him spray-painting an anarchy symbol on the Washington state capitol building. Though the charge packed a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, the Snowman was able to plead down to three months. Just days later, Monson was arrested again when a domestic dust-up with one of his many love-interests resulted in an overturned grandfather clock and a fist-shaped hole in the wall; those charges were later dismissed.

#15: Kim Couture
Arrested for: Domestic violence

(Another case of life imitating art.)

Our friends at MiddleEasy.com scored a pretty awesome exclusive interview with someone claiming to be Lee Murray who says he was texting them answers to their questions via a cell phone he smuggled into the Moroccan prison he’ll call home for the next 25 years.

According to the story, someone close to the former UFC fighter got wind of ME’s "Free Lee Murray" shirts and offered to facilitate the Q&A, which seems pretty legit.

It looks like "Lightning" might be planning an appeal and hasn’t given up hope that his fate is sealed as he told MiddleEasy that he couldn’t talk about his part in the Securitas heist, which he is purported to have put together.

We won’t steal their well-earned traffic by copy and pasting the interview, but we will post an incredible quote from Murray in which he takes a shot at Tito Ortiz, who Lee is said to have knocked out during a street fight in London.

"…i pass some time by reading some books or mags, watch some DVDs, UFC, movies. I see a great porno of Tito’s wife getting the life fucked out of her by a bunch of dudes. That was pretty fun…not for him i bet …It’s not too bad. Not the first three years four months I done by myself in solitary confinement. I didn’t see no one. It was a fucking hole with rats & shit coming out the hole u piss in It’s not a prob when you piss, it’s a prob when you have to squat over it to take a s***, praying a rat don’t jump out and grab your balls "

I’m no expert on the rules of blackmail or bribes, but if I was going to pay a dude $20,000 to pretend I didn’t kick his ass outside the bar he bounces at, I would…I don’t know…get some kind of a contract or receipt from the victim to make sure he didn’t renege on the deal. 

I guess Badr Hari is just a very trusting man who believes in the power of the human spirit.

Here’s the latest on Hari’s legal issues stemming from a smackdown he allegedly laid down on a Dutch bouncer who wouldn’t let him in his club, courtesy of The Telegraaf.

"Hari After his arrest told police that the matter had been settled out of court and that the 33-year-old bouncer had been paid. According to the fighter, the man asked through his lawyer that he be paid [$20,000 USD]. Hari gave him then one third of that sum in order for him to withdraw the allegations, with the promise that the remainder would be paid in full when he did.
The door man of the club in Holland refused Hari and his three friends entry into the club and was then beaten and kicked so hard that he broke his jaw and doctors had a plate put in his face to hold it together. After he had received the money, the doorman appeared on the TV channel AT5 to tell him that Hari had assaulted him. The lawyer of the kick boxer, Benedicte Ficq, confirmed in the newspaper that his client has paid money to the doorman, but disagreed that it was hush money."

"If by ‘hush money you mean that the doorman had been paid to lie about the incident, then the answer is  absolutely ‘not’. The doorman kept gossiping that Badr had beaten him up for days prior to going to police, which is not true," his lawyer explained. "Hari has had his reputation tainted by some of the things he’s done in his career, so I advised him that he should pay this man to make sure he didn’t create any more problems for him."

Hari can’t bribe a guy properly and he sucks at faking his own death. Maybe he needs to get in touch with Lee Murray and see how his Moroccan homeboy got away with his crime….oh wait.

("I think it’s cool, but do you think the judge will find it as ironic as we do, Lee?")

It looks like Lee Murray will be behind bars longer than he thought.

According to a BBC report, the former UFC fighter who was named as the mastermind behind the 2006 $85 million (USD) Securitas heist in London had 15 years tacked onto his 10 year sentence today following a brief hearing in Rabat, Morocco where he has been held since being arrested in the North African country for importing drugs, whereupon authorities discovered he was wanted in connection to the UK robbery.

Murray fled England with right hand man and fellow MMA fighter, Paul Allen who was sentenced to 18 years in jail two years after being extradited back to London in 2007 when the pair were arrested outside of a mall in Morocco.

"Lightning" managed to avoid extradition because his father was a Moroccan national, but he couldn’t avoid the stiffer jail sentence he was handed down today.

(I can’t see why two GQ-looking guys stuck out in Morocco.)

The man who admitted to being former UFC fighter Lee Murray’s right-hand man in the Securitas depot robbery four years ago that netted "Lightning" and his team the equivalent of $85 million USD, was sentenced on Monday to 18 years behind bars for his part in the mega heist.

0-0-1 former MMA fighter Paul "The Enforcer" Allen, who was handed over to British authorities in 2008 after being arrested in Morocco with Murray in 2006 pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to possess a firearm and was sentenced to nearly double the years in jail as Lee, who was identified as the mastermind behind the spectacular robbery.

The well-planned out heist that saw Murray, disguised with a prosthetic nose and chin and dressed as a police officer kidnap the security depot’s manager and his family at gunpoint before cleaning out a number of vaults from the previously thought to be uncompromisable money storage depot.

(Props: YouTube.com/PrivateMichael104)

The story of Tito Ortiz getting punched out by convicted bank robber Lee Murray during an alleyway altercation after UFC 38 has grown into one of MMA’s most beloved bits of folklore. The most famous version — relayed second-hand from a drunken Pat Miletich and published in Matt Hughes’s autobiography Made in America — ends with Tito Ortiz getting starched by "like, a five-punch combo," then boot-stomped.

On this Friday’s installment of Michael Schiavello’s HDNet interview series The Voice Vs…, Ortiz gets to tell his side of the tale. Basically, it was Ortiz’s friend that was getting stomped, and when Murray dropped Ortiz with a punch it was more of slip then anything else, and that only happened after Murray was running away like a little bitch, and Tito was able to pop back up anyway. As Tito explains, "I was never unconscious at the time, in my whole career I’ve never been unconscious, and I never will go unconscious." Also, Lee Murray’s robbery conviction was karmic revenge for this embarrassing story being spread around.

No mention of the best part of the Ortiz vs. Murray street fight legend, which involved Chuck Liddell knocking multiple dudes out with his back against a wall. Where were you back then, TMZ?

("Oh Tito, I knew you’d come around.")

BBC News is reporting that former UFC middleweight fighter-turned bank robber, Lee Murray was sentenced to ten years in prison in Morocco for his part in an armed £53,116,760 (about $92.5 million US) Securitas money depot heist in Kent, England in February 2006.

It’s been a minute and a half since we’ve done our weekly t-shirt giveaway, and if the rumors are true, our "Hall of Fame" shirt might become outdated next month. So it’s time to dump some of these rags. Earning themselves free tees this week are:

Bootylam on "Frank Lester, Mike Ciesnolevicz, Tim Boetsch Released From the UFC": "Get ready for a surprise!"
[Ed. note: Dude? Exactly.]

ktfo on "Bob Sapp Re-Evaluates Life After Breaking Toilet": yup, you know its fake cause bob sapp won

El Famous Burrito on "Lee Murray Breathes The Air of a Free Man For a Few Fleeting Moments": Of course they didn’t go for that trade. It was complete shit. England has to sweeten the deal: Lee Murray for Mohamed Karbouzi + 2 terrorist prospects to be named later. I hear there’s this kid in Uzbekistan with a 100-mph Molotov Cocktail Curveball.

Kevin Marshall on "Lee Murray Breathes The Air of a Free Man For a Few Fleeting Moments": @UFC fan
"and we give a fuck…whyyyyyy?"

Because he was an MMA…fighterrrrrr.
And he was involved in the biggest heist in…historyyyyyy.
And this is an MMA…websiteeeeee.
And it’s an interesting…storyyyyyy.

If your name has been called, please e-mail feedback@cagepotato.com with your real name, address, and shirt size. And keep bringin’ the funny!

We’ve touched on Lee Murray’s Tito-stomping, depot-robbing exploits in the past, but ESPN dug a little deeper on Tuesday’s episode of E:60, presenting the full story of Murray’s journey from MMA fighter to legendary thief. Part one is above, part two is below; fist bump to MMA Mania.

Related: SI’s story on Murray going to film

In an apparent attempt to boost their anemic ratings, DREAM has signed notoriously dirty fighter Gilbert “Hurricane” Yvel to a three-fight contract. The Dutch striker is expected to face Alistair Overeem in the near future.

Yvel took the #7 spot in our list of the 10 Most Despicable People in MMA for his trio of DQs — one for biting Karimula Barkalaev in 1998, one for eye-gouging Don Frye at PRDE 16 in 2001, and once for knocking out a referee during a match against Atte Backman in 2004; video of that one is above. Yvel last competed in May — at an event in Holland ironically titled “Gentlemen Fight Night” — picking up his fifth-straight win with a knockout of Michael Kita.

Speaking of despicable fighters, UFC/Cage Rage brawler-turned-armed robber Lee “Lightning” Murray will be immortalized in the feature film Breaking the Bank, which will be based on his involvement in the $92 million raiding of Securitas AB in 2006 — the largest cash heist in history.

So, we published a list feature on Friday (“The 10 Most Despicable People in MMA”), and reactions were, let’s just say, “mixed.” A lot of you felt that Dana White shouldn’t have been as high as #2, to which we can only reply “Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.” Yes, yes, we’re aware of all the great things he’s done for our sport. But can you think of anybody else in the world of MMA who you’ve bitched about more over the last couple years? We’re particularly bitter about his contempt for the websites and blogs that work harder than any other media outlet to publicize mixed martial arts. Where do you go for MMA coverage — the sports section of your local paper? ESPN2? No, you have to read eRags like CagePotato because the mainstream media doesn’t care about this sport yet. You’d think Dana White would want to show some love to the journalists that actually understand and care about the UFC, but to him we’re part of the Untouchable class. Trust us, if he provided any sort of press privileges to bloggers whatsoever, DW would be #2 on our list of Favorite People in MMA (after Krazy Horse, obvi).

Still, there was one aspect of the list that we definitely did regret the morning after. As commenter “homegrowncone” said:

Wow. I waited all the way till number 1 for Lee Murray only for him to not even get an honourable mention. This list looses all credibility because of that.

We have to admit, that was an oversight. And we’d just like to take this belated opportunity to say that Lee Murray is a despicable scumbag.