Liam McCracken is now back in medicals and needs only a routine eye exam to clear the way for Dana White's Contender Series, a turn that would have sounded impossible when he was dragged by a bus and left with 20 broken bones. The 25-year-old is trying to turn that recovery into a UFC contract.
McCracken said he was running across the road with headphones on when the bus hit him, drove him 60 feet and left everyone who saw it thinking he was dead. He broke his spine in four places, three ribs, a pelvis and a nose, and also suffered bulged disks in his neck and a torn MCL, along with surgery on his head, ear, lip and nose and extensive skin grafting.
That is why his latest checkup matters. He said the last time he was at the optometrist, he was in a wheelchair and being pushed around; now he is there to prove he is fit enough to fight for the UFC. The contrast captures the scale of the comeback better than any record line could. McCracken, who had been viewed as a future major MMA champion before the crash, is trying to make good on that belief by getting through the final medical step.
The recovery was not his alone. McCracken said Concordia Clinic in Liverpool played a major part after hospital discharge, with near-daily treatment, including oxygen therapy, while family and team members kept him moving. He said it took two years to get back in the cage, a period that included time in a wheelchair and the slow work of building his body back piece by piece.
There is still an edge to the story that keeps it from becoming simple inspiration. McCracken said he should not have survived, should not be walking and should not be talking after the crash, yet he is now being measured for a shot at the UFC. What remains unresolved is the fight itself: if he clears the medicals, the contract opportunity is there, but the date and opponent are not yet part of the picture.
