From near-fatal accident to Contender Series

Liam McCracken, a 25-year-old mixed martial artist from Liverpool, England, is set to compete for a UFC contract on Dana White's Contender Series in Las Vegas on Tuesday. The bout comes three years after an accident that nearly cost him his life.

While out on a run near his home in Liverpool, McCracken was hit by a bus and dragged underneath it for 18 metres (60 feet) before the vehicle stopped, as reported by BBC Sport. He stepped into the road without properly checking for oncoming vehicles, according to the same report, and said he did not see the bus until the last moment.

A couple who witnessed the incident found McCracken under the bus, unconscious and bleeding heavily, and thought he was dead, BBC Sport reported. McCracken says that had it not been for passers-by, including a paramedic with life-saving equipment in their car, he would probably have bled to death before an ambulance arrived.

The accident left him with four fractures in his back, two slipped discs in his neck, three broken ribs, a broken pelvis, a broken nose, a ruptured ACL, a torn meniscus and multiple other wounds, according to BBC Sport and Yardbarker. One report also cited a broken neck and legs.

Recovery and return to the cage

Doctors initially said McCracken might need a metal rod in his back, which would have ended his career, but after multiple X-rays it was determined he would not need it, BBC Sport reported. At the time of the accident, he had won five of his six professional MMA fights, according to Yardbarker. He had been a 6-1 fighter on the rise when the accident occurred in September 2023, one Yardbarker article noted.

McCracken returned to action almost two years after the accident and won via rear-naked choke against Brazil's Jhon Bryan, BBC Sport reported. He went on to win three more fights, all by stoppage, according to a Yardbarker report. His professional record now stands at 8-1, though another report lists him as a 9-1 fighter. A GoFundMe campaign raised over £35,000 for him, according to one Yardbarker article.

"It was a long road and very up and down and if things along the way went a little different, I wouldn't be back fighting," McCracken said, as quoted by Yardbarker.

"It was the longest six months of my life and I finally started to get somewhere when I had to have knee surgery, which is a massive surgery. So I had to basically start all over again. That was one of the hardest parts," he added.

Fighting for a UFC contract

McCracken, who is a father of one, faces Mexican lightweight Silvestre Sanchez (9-1) on the Contender Series. An impressive victory could secure him a contract with the UFC, as reported by Yardbarker.

Reflecting on the accident and his recovery, McCracken told BBC Sport: "For the first few days I wasn't caring about anything else other than the fact that I was alive... The main thing was I was glad to be alive."

He recalled that his daughter was the first thing he spoke about when he regained consciousness. "I have a little daughter and apparently the people who found me said that was the first thing I kept speaking about when I regained consciousness," he said.

McCracken described the incident as feeling like being in a film. "It was like I was in a film. I was looking around thinking 'how is this happening'? I didn't ever think it was going to happen. It felt like I was having an out of body experience," he told BBC Sport.

He also noted a poignant detail from his recovery: "My girl had just turned one. One of the funniest things is she wasn't walking at the time and literally a day or two after it happened she started walking."