Liam McCracken: From surviving a horrific bus crash to fighting for a UFC contract

The first thought Liam McCracken can remember having after he woke up was that he was glad to be alive.

On Tuesday, the Briton is set to compete for a UFC contract on Dana White's Contender Series in Las Vegas, but just three years ago he was fighting for his life.

While out on a run near his home in Liverpool, McCracken stepped out into the road without properly checking for oncoming vehicles, and was hit by a bus.

The 25-year-old from Liverpool says he didn't see the bus until the last moment, and was dragged underneath it for 18 metres (60ft) and seven seconds before it stopped.

A couple who saw the incident found McCracken under the bus unconscious and bleeding heavily. They thought he was dead.

If not for passers by on the main road, among them a paramedic with life-saving equipment in their car, McCracken says he would probably have bled to death before an ambulance arrived to take him to hospital.

The accident left McCracken with four fractures in his back, two slipped discs in his neck, three broken ribs, a broken pelvis, a broken nose, a ruptured anterior cruciate knee ligament, a torn meniscus and multiple other wounds.

For a long time he worried he might never walk or compete again - but remarkably, he will fight Mexican lightweight Silvestre Sanchez on Tuesday.

"For the first few days I wasn't caring about anything else other than the fact that I was alive," McCracken tells BBC Sport.

"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.

"I kept asking about my little girl while I was on the floor getting seen by people. The main thing was I was glad to be alive."

McCracken says the incident and recovery which followed were some of the most difficult moments of his life but he tells the story in good humour.

"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. I stopped being able to walk while she'd just learned to walk," says McCracken.

McCracken was not only unconscious but was being burned by the engine of the bus - but the driver could not turn the ignition off because the suspension would have dropped, with the vehicle potentially crushing him.

A pedestrian had to help the driver guide the bus away from McCracken before anyone could tend to him.

"A woman was with me holding my hand on the floor and then loads of people started coming over," said McCracken.

"They came over and saw to me straight away which basically saved my life because I was losing a lot of blood. I had to get multiple blood transfusions."

At the time McCracken had won five of his six fights as a professional and was being touted as a future UFC star, but he had a long road ahead of him if he was to make his dream a reality.

McCracken says there were serious doubts whether he would fight again because doctors said he might need a metal rod in his back, which would have ended his career.

However, after multiple X-rays, it was determined he would not need it.

"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," he said.

"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."

After multiple operations followed by hours of physio and training, McCracken eventually returned to action almost two years after the accident.

"It was very up and down and I did some stupid stuff like trying to jump back into training when I wasn't ready to," said McCracken.

"Obviously it was stupid - but the mentality I had was I wasn't going to let it stop me, and that's what's allowed me to get back in a way."

McCracken won via a rear-naked choke againstg Brazil's Jhon Bryan on his return, but says his performance was not up to his usual standard because he was not fully focused on his opponent.

"It was like I was in a film. I was looking around thinking 'how is this happening'?" said McCracken.

"I didn't ever think it was going to happen. It felt like I was having an out of body experience."