Dean Lister

American mixed martial arts fighter

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, luta livre black belt, and coach. Lister is considered a pioneer of grappling and mixed martial arts. 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". 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.

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. 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. 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. He maintains that it is "the biggest and most challenging sport that exists". 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. In the co main event of Metamoris 4 on August 9, 2014, Lister faced Josh Barnett to determine the inaugural Metamoris Heavyweight Champion. 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.

Lister competed in the first ADCC North American trial in 2002, winning the under 99kg division. 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. 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. 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.

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. Lister led Team Black Rifle Coffee Company at the tournament, and finished in third place.

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

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