‘Protected’: UFC hopeful Liam McCracken recounts miraculous rebound after being hit by bus

Liam McCracken sat in the ready room for the optometrist to call his title. The flashbacks were sturdy.

The circumstances of his hospital go to this time were much completely different than the last time he was there. This time, McCracken (8-1) needed a routine eye examination in order to go his medicals for a huge alternative: Dana White’s Contender Series.

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But that earlier time? The future was much less certain, and considerably less vibrant.

“Just walking around there, the last time I was in there, I was in a wheelchair getting pushed around,” McCracken just lately instructed MMA Junkie. “Now, I’m in there getting my eyes tested to make sure I can go fight for the UFC. I’m very, very proud of myself to get to the point that I don’t think a lot of people would’ve.”

The bus’ horn sounded, but he never heard it – or at least that’s his concept. He does not actually know for sure what he heard or did not hear, or saw or did not see. McCracken, 25, has no recollection of the incident that eternally modified his life. It makes sense, contemplating he was unconscious for long after the level of influence.

He’s had to piece the scene collectively from first-hand accounts. This is what he’s come up with.

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“I’m just a bad crosser of the road,” McCracken said. “I’m still going to get run over to this day. I’ve just got no road awareness. I was running across the road with headphones on and was getting beeped by the driver. I had headphones on full blast so I didn’t hear him and slow down. I got completely dragged by it. I got found unconscious at the back at the bus where it drove me 60 feet on the floor. Everyone who seen it thought I was dead. I was in a bad away. It was a serious, serious accident and one I shouldn’t even be here. Literally, I should be dead for what happened, never mind if I survived it. I shouldn’t be walking. I shouldn’t be talking. Life works in mad ways and I do feel like I’m protected by something great.”

McCracken is fortunate to even be in a position to stroll. The accidents were horrific. He broke his backbone in 4 locations; his ribs in three. His pelvis was damaged, as was his nostril. Disks bulged from his neck. His MCL was torn, as was the pores and skin down his leg. His head, ear, lip, and nostril all required surgical procedure. There were 20 damaged bones in complete. He was torn up, and had to endure substantial pores and skin grafting.

At the time, he was barely 22 years outdated and was being conceived as a future main MMA champion. In an instantaneous, that dream and more were almost taken from him.

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“I’ve got unbelievable people around me, my family, my team, everyone around me,” McCracken said. “I’ve got really good people around me. Without them, it would’ve been literally impossible. I also had a lot of people help out with my recovery, like a place Concordia Clinic in Liverpool. As soon as I got out of the hospital they had me in there nearly every day, doing things like oxygen therapy and getting treatments off different people. I’m just really blessed with the people I’ve got around me through fighting and just through my family and my team. Without them, it would’ve been impossible for me to get back fighting. A lot of its down to other people and also down to my own mentality. I just kept chipping away day by day and it took two years to get back in the cage. I gave up a little bit of time, but I always came back too. Like I said, I just kept chipping away until I got back now.”

Even as just lately as 18 months in the past, McCracken’s preventing future was in doubt. But he never stop on himself. He remained diligent with all of his bodily therapy and other medical appointments – including a weekly back X-ray. Doing everything he could, McCracken needed nature to show him some luck – and it did.

In September, almost two years to date the date of the accident, McCracken made his unbelievable return to the cage and defeated Jhon Bryan by first-round rear-naked choke. It was an emotional second. The child who was instructed he’d never battle again was preventing – and profitable. He won two more fights before the UFC came calling.

“My first fight back, I still had a lot of stuff going on, to be honest, physically,” McCracken said. “I was just testing my body out to see if I was going to be able to get back to doing it. It was more just a test run like, ‘Let’s test it and see how it goes.’ It went well. I was disappointed in my performance because I’m very critical. Anyone who is a high achiever or wants to be a high achiever is critical of themselves. I wasn’t happy with that. I wanted to knock the kid out. I had this dream image in my head of how I wanted to fight to look and the just the moment felt a bit overwhelming. I couldn’t believe I was actually fighting. I wasn’t very present in the fight. I just needed to come back and get it done and it was nice to look back, obviously.”

Entering his Dana White’s Contender Series 90 bout Tuesday vs. Silvestre Sanchez (9-1) at Meta APEX in Las Vegas, McCracken admits he still has some therapeutic to do. He’s not good, but he’s good enough.

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“Obviously, I’ve still go things wrong with me, not how they should be. I got hit by a bus,” McCracken said. “But if it went a little bit worse, I wouldn’t be fighting. They’re all manageable. I’m very fortunate in that way that everything I needed in my recovery to go well, went well.”

McCracken thinks a UFC contract will be his after the brass get their first style of what he’s serving up. If achieved, the finish purpose will be even sweeter, given the highway it took to get there.

“(It would mean) everything,” McCracken said. “It’s like fulfilling a childhood dream. That little 10-year-old kid who started out would’ve that never thought he could’ve got to that point, to literally living out your childhood dream. It’s crazy. I’m not trying to get too caught up in what that’s going to feel like because I’ve got a job to do first. I just think I’m enjoying it all as it happens and it comes, because it’s not going to come if you don’t do what you need to do. That’s what my job and my focus is completely, completely on. That moment, it’s going to be special, especially after all the obstacles that I had to get through to get here, it’s going to make it even more sweet when it happens.”

This article initially appeared on MMA Junkie: ‘Protected’: UFC hopeful Liam McCracken recounts miraculous rebound after being hit by bus