Dean Lister

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Dean Lister
Born	(1976-02-13) February 13, 1976 (age 48) San Diego, California, U.S.
Other names	The Boogeyman, The Machine, Mr. Fister
Height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Weight	220 lb (100 kg; 15 st 10 lb)
Division	Middleweight Light Heavyweight Heavyweight
Reach	75 in (191 cm)
Style	Submission wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu
Team	Fabio Santos Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (until 2003) Victory MMA (2007–present)[1]
Rank	4th degree black belt in BJJ[a] Black belt in Luta Livre[3]
Years active	2000–2009; 2012, 2015
Mixed martial arts record
Total	20
Wins	13
By submission	11
By decision	2
Losses	7
By decision	7
Mixed martial arts record from Sherdog
Medal record Representing  United States Men's Submission Wrestling ADCC World Championship 2003 São Paulo Absolute 2005 Long Beach SuperFight 2011 Nottingham -99kg 2013 Beijing -99kg ADCC North American Championships 2002 Los Angeles -99kg

Dean Richard Lister (born February 13, 1976) is a retired American mixed martial artist (MMA) and submission grappler. He is a 4th degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) black belt,^[a] luta livre black belt,^[3] and coach. Lister is considered a pioneer of grappling and mixed martial arts.^[4]

In MMA, Lister competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and PRIDE. He is a former King of the Cage Middleweight Champion. In submission grappling, Lister won two ADCC World Championship tournaments and the ADCC Superfight Championship.

Lister grew up in a military family and lived in several South American countries, including Venezuela and Panama. Lister speaks several languages. He lived in Panama during the U.S. invasion in 1989, and, according to Lister, he was "right in the middle of a serious combat zone".^[5] After living in several different cities in the United States, Lister's family settled in San Diego for Lister's high school years, where he attended Hilltop High School.^[6]

Lister often fought as a kid, mostly due to a combination of being the "new kid", a foreigner, and being small for his age. The need to protect himself led Lister to wrestling and martial arts. He started wrestling in high school, and became the high school division wrestling champion and a U.S. National Sambo Champion.^{[citation needed]} Shortly after graduating from high school, Lister visited the Fábio Santos Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy in San Diego with his wrestling teammates, and became very interested in the sport. He started competing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 1996, six months after he started training.^{[citation needed]}

From 1997–2003, Lister worked as an instructor for Santos. Lister teaches both beginner and advanced students at Victory MMA in San Diego. The classes typically begin with Dean teaching submission grappling techniques from various grappling arts he's accumulated during the years, followed by sparring.^[7]

He maintains that it is "the biggest and most challenging sport that exists".^[5] Lister does not favor any particular technique, although he is mostly known for his leg attacks (foot locks and knee locks). Lister is a high school wrestling champion, two-time U.S. National Sambo champion, four-time U.S. Machado National Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Champion (weight class and open class), and a National Gracie Jiu Jitsu champion.^{[citation needed]}

It is worth noting that one of Lister's MMA losses is against Nathan Marquardt, despite previously submitting him in the 2003 ADCC tournament.^[8]

Lister was a King of the Cage Middleweight Champion, and defended his title several times before losing to Jeremy Horn in a Light Heavyweight fight. KOTC stripped Dean of his title after the loss, even though it was at a higher weight class. Years later, Lister avenged this loss by submitting Jeremy Horn with a guillotine choke in the TUF 7 finale.

Lister lost a three-round unanimous decision to Yushin Okami at UFC 92 on December 27, 2008, dropping his UFC record to 4–2. He subsequently requested to be released from his UFC contract, and has since signed with the Maximum Fighting Championship.

Dean Lister and Renato Sobral fought to a draw at Metamoris 3 in a submission wrestling match.^[9]

In the co-main event of Metamoris 4 on August 9, 2014, Lister faced Josh Barnett to determine the inaugural Metamoris Heavyweight Champion.^[10] Barnett became the first person in sixteen years to defeat Lister via submission, submitting Lister with a scarf hold in the final thirty seconds of the match.^[11][12]

Lister competed in the first ADCC North American trial in 2002, winning the under 99kg division.^[13] He was then invited to compete at ADCC 2003 and won the absolute division at the tournament before returning in 2005 to become the Superfight champion, defeating Jean Jacques Machado. He claimed the gold medal again in 2011 in the under 99 kg division by submitting João Assis in the final by a heel hook. He also submitted jiu-jitsu world champion Rodolfo Vieira, in his weight division, also with a heel hook.^[14] At the 2013 ADCC in Beijing, China, Lister defeated Cristiano Lazzarini in the semi-finals of the under 99 kg division by heel hook but would go on to lose on points in the finals to João Assis; In the absolute division Lister submitted both Hideki Sekine and João Gabriel Rocha by heel hook before losing to Marcus Almeida in the semi-finals. Lister also lost to Keenan Cornelius in the bronze medal match both on points.

Lister is notable for an ADCC triple crown by winning his weight division, the absolute division and a superfight.^[15] In 2022, Lister earned the honor of being part of the inaugural class of the ADCC Hall of Fame and was the first American to be included.^[16]

Lister's sparring partner and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Tito Ortiz, invited him to be his assistant grappling coach on the third season of the Spike TV reality show, The Ultimate Fighter.

Lister served as a coach alongside Roger Gracie, Jean Jacques Machado, and Rigan Machado on season 6 of the Professional Grappling Federation on April 21 to 26, 2024.^[17] Lister led Team Black Rifle Coffee Company at the tournament,^[18] and finished in third place.^[19]

Lister returned to coach on season 7 of the Professional Grappling Federation on November 3 to 8, 2024, alongside Roger Gracie, Pedro Sauer, and Carlos Machado.^[20] He led the Constellation Network team.^[21]

^[22] In April 2021, Lister was hospitalized due to being involved in a hit and run which resulted in a ruptured spleen.^[23]

Result	Opponent	Method	Event	Division	Year
Loss	Muhammad Kerimov	Submission (shoulder injury during an Ezekiel choke)	ACBJJ	Superfight	2015
Loss	Yuri Simoes	Points (3-5)	ADCC 2015	Absolute	2015
Win	Ricardo Mesquita	Submission (heel hook)	ADCC 2015	Absolute	2015
Loss	Orlando Mario Sanchez	Referee Decision	ADCC 2015	+99	2015
Win	Hyung Chul-Lee	Submission (armlock)	ADCC 2015	+99	2015
Loss	Keenan Cornelius	Submission (reverse triangle choke)	Polaris Professional Jiu Jitsu Invitational	Superfight	2015
Loss	Josh Barnett	Submission (scarf-hold choke)	Metamoris IV	Superfight	2014
Draw	Renato Sobral	Draw	Metamoris III	Superfight	2014
Win	Janne-Pekka Pietiläinen	Referee Decision	Macaco Branco Primates	Superfight	2014
Win	Tarsis Humphreys	Submission (heel hook)	World Jiu-Jitsu Expo	Superfight	2013
Loss	Keenan Cornelius	Points	ADCC 2013	Absolute	2013
Loss	Marcus Almeida	Points	ADCC 2013	Absolute	2013
Win	João Gabriel Rocha	Submission (heel hook)	ADCC 2013	Absolute	2013
Win	Hideki Sekine	Submission (heel hook)	ADCC 2013	Absolute	2013
Loss	João Assis	Points	ADCC 2013	-99 kg	2013
Win	Cristiano Lazzarini	Submission (heel hook)	ADCC 2013	-99 kg	2013
Win	Ezra Lenon	Submission (heel hook)	ADCC 2013	-99 kg	2013
Win	Jia Jing Jang	Submission (heel hook)	ADCC 2013	-99 kg	2013
Loss	João Assis	Referee Decision	Grapplers Quest: UFC Fan Expo	Absolute	2013
Win	Kyle Griffin	Submission (toe hold)	Grapplers Quest: UFC Fan Expo	Absolute	2013
Draw	Alexandre Ribeiro	Draw	Metamoris I	Superfight	2012
Win	Ricardo Abreu	Submission (heel hook)	Grapplers Quest: UFC Fan Expo	Superfight	2012
Win	João Assis	Submission (heel hook)	ADCC 2011	-99 kg	2011
Win	Rodolfo Vieira	Submission (heel hook)	ADCC 2011	-99 kg	2011
Win	Radek Turek	Submission (heel hook)	ADCC 2011	-99 kg	2011
Win	Augusto Ferrari	Points	ADCC 2011	-99 kg	2011
Loss	Vinny Magalhães	Points	ADCC 2009	Absolute	2009
Loss	Glover Teixeira	Points	ADCC 2009	-99 kg	2009
Win	Andreas Olsen	Submission (triangle choke)	ADCC 2009	-99 kg	2009
Win	Jean Jacques Machado	Points	ADCC 2005	Superfight	2005
Win	Alexandre Ferreira	Submission (heel hook)	ADCC 2003	Absolute	2003
Win	Márcio Cruz	Points (3-0)	ADCC 2003	Absolute	2003
Win	Saulo Ribeiro	Submission (kneebar)	ADCC 2003	Absolute	2003
Win	Nate Marquardt	Submission (kimura)	ADCC 2003	Absolute	2003
Loss	Alexandre Ribeiro	Points	ADCC 2003	-99 kg	2003
Win	Ilir Latifi	Submission (guillotine choke)	ADCC 2003	-99 kg	2003
Loss	Marc Laimon	Points (2-4)	Grapplers Quest West	Absolute	2000
Win	Tony DeSouza	Points (4-2)	Grapplers Quest West	Absolute	2000
Win	Sean Sprangler	Submission (neck crank)	Grapplers Quest West	Absolute	2000

Kano Jigoro → Tomita Tsunejiro → Mitsuyo "Count Koma" Maeda → Carlos Gracie, Sr. → Helio Gracie → Rickson Gracie → Fabio Santos → Jeffrey Higgs → Dean Lister

• Dean Lister at UFC