Dean Lister - The Greatest Tzar of His Era

Whether it is MMA, grappling, or BJJ, the name Dean Lister, The Boogeyman needs no introduction. He was a man of intimidating and charismatic personality responsible for introducing many variations of leg locks in grappling and still reshaping it to date. His detailed instructionals offer a lot to learn from the Boogeyman.

Dean Lister, a formidable American grappler, was born on February 13, 1976, in San Diego California. His family has a military background which is why he moved a lot to South American states, like Panama and Venezuela. His stationing in different places with his family has helped him in different languages like English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. He got his high school education from Hilltop High School after settling in San Diego.

Being continually the new meat in schools, he was in many cases in fights and made some harsh memories growing up because of bullying. Bullying was the main reason that he was attracted to martial arts for learning self-defense and to guard himself as he was the smallest kid in class. Besides, he spent many years in Panama during the US invasion, so living in a serious combat zone has also pushed him towards a martial arts and fighting career.

“I was told that the choke is the king, the armbar is the queen, and the foot lock is the dirty thief. Whatever people want to say, foot locks work.”

His amateur fighting career started in high school. When he settled back in San Diego, he began wrestling when was in high school and became the champion of the high-school division, a U.S. Public Sambo Champion, a National Gracie Jiu-Jitsu champion, and a U.S. Machado National Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Champion. Jerry Matsumoto was his first coach who confirmed his interest in the submission. Not long after moving on from high school, Lister visited the Fábio Santos Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy.

His interest developed in jiu-jitsu as early as he was in his childhood, once he read about it in a magazine, but he officially joined the sport in 1996, right after six months of his training. His dedication and commitment to the sport have earned him a special position in jiu-jitsu. He has been awarded a black belt by Jeffery Higgs. By keeping a receptive outlook and engrossing strategies from different disciplines, he brought a leg lock establishment in the grappling art of jiu-jitsu that he had the option to expand on and accomplish a serious level of progress with his profession.

Soon after Lister completed high school, he was exceptionally keen on BJJ because of its outcome in MMA fighting and chose to join Fabio Santos' academy. These were difficult stretches in Dean Lister's life as he had recently joined the school and was essentially all alone, being a full-time worker for his bread and butter, paying for his school educational cost, lease, and jiu-jitsu. So it was a rough patch in his life. But he was a living example of Earnest Hemongways’ depiction:

“A man can be destroyed but cannot be defeated.”

His trainer Fabios Santos, refused to award him a blackbelt because of his major interest in MMA, causing him to leave the academy. But later, Jeffery Higgs awarded him the Black belt.

Apart from his training life, he experienced difficult trials in his personal life as well. He got divorced from model Flavia Mazzoni. He had to stop his career because of severe depression and got addicted to drugs. He recently got hospitalized due to a ruptured spleen.

Lister was a three-time invitee to the ADCC championship. He got the honor in 2000, 2003, and 2005. Apart from his invitation, he is a three times submission wrestling champion as well.

In 2002, Dean took first place in the North American ADCC trials where he was also honored as the Fighter of the Night.

In 2003, he won the Absolute ADCC Championship in the Open weight division. In this championship, he consecutively defeated four of the world’s best grapplers which was a record at that time. This was the culmination point of his career which paved the way to launch himself in MMA.

In 2005, he won the ADCC Superfight championship by defeating Jean Jacques Machado.

In 2011, he won the ADCC Championship, by defeating Joao Assis.

In 2013, he won silver in the ADCC Championship.

His MMA career prospered after the fame gained by the winning streak in ADCC. Dean Lister proceeded to fight in: the planet's greatest associations, Pride FC, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Lister won the King of the Cage Middleweight Championship in his MMA career several times. There was a time in his early MMA career when nobody wanted to compete with him due to fear of deadly leg-lock submissions. That is why he was called by the name “The Boogeyman”. In the mid-2000s, Dean Lister acquainted Danaher with the leg locks when he came to prepare at Renzo Gracie Academy for a couple of weeks. Lister associated his progress in fights with leg-based assaults, and this disclosure uplift Danaher to foster them further.

He has also won the PRIDE Bushido 6, held in Japan, by defeating Akira Shoji in 2005.

It was Lister's brilliant strategy that he gives opponents what they want and lets them exhaust themselves and ultimately their morale diminishes when their best attack fails. Then he surprised the opponent with an unorthodox move. In the above video, Lister was caught up in an extremely tight guillotine by Ferreira that he had the option to get out of and end up under Ferreira's guard. This would demonstrate very helpful for Dean as the referee reset the activity in the center of the mat. Then he swam his hand to get the heel hook. It was just a beautiful and artistic display of proficiency in techniques.

The above fight witnessed Lister’s remarkable championship victory. In 2005, he won the ADCC Superfight championship by defeating Jean Jacques Machado. He won by points (9-0). It was the longest bout with a remarkable win.

The above fight shows complete jiu-jitsu perfection as Lister shot Alessio Sarkara to the takedown and got an excellent guard. That was a very dangerous guard. Dean Lister is a full well-rounded submission specialist. He set up a triangle then he grabbed hold of his arm to control it. He secured a well-deserved win by applying a triangle choke.

Dean Lister turned into a significant mentor, with experience preparing proficient MMA contenders like Tito Ortiz. As a senior member, he was on The Ultimate Fighter series 7 (TUF7) as a catching mentor for Team Ortiz.

Moreover, he was associated with academies like “Fabio Santos BJJ Academy”, in 1997, in San Diego and “Top Team Academy” in 2000 in Brazil. There, he trained submission grappling with his innovative techniques.

In 2007, Dean lister founded Victory MMA in his hometown, San Diego. His academy is a well-known fitness gym in San Diego. He instructs the beginners and advanced level gi and no-gi BJJ training to the members.

Dean lister has launched various instructional videos to teach his innovative lower body submissions. His DVD series on The K.A.T.C.H System, Worry Escapes, and Grappling Hacks master the grapplers to effective leg attacks and unleash devastation kneeling down, toes, heels, and lower legs.

• High school division wrestling champion
• Two-time national (US) sambo champion
• Four-time Machado National (US) BJJ champion
• National (US) Gracie BJJ champion

• Three-time winner of ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship
• Grappling coach at Ultimate Fighter series 7 (TUF 7)
• Won King of the Cage Championship (KOTC) 5, 11, 12, 16, 25, 29
• Two times winner of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 60, 79
• Winner of UFC Fight Night 6 and Pride Bushido 6.
• Got the honor as first American to be included in the inaugural class of the ADCC Hall of Fame,2022.

Won ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships

1. ADCC 2011 –99 kg: won the gold medal in Nottingham.
2. ADCC 2003 –98 kg: Absolute/Open weight: won the gold medal in São Paulo.

Year	Division	Event	Medal
2003	98 kg: Absolute/Open weight	ADCC World Submission Wrestling	Gold
2011	99 kg	ADCC World Submission Wrestling	Gold

One-time ADCC 2002 North American Trials won the gold medal in Los Angeles

Year	Division	Event	Medal
2002	99 kg	North American Trials	Gold

ADCC 2005 Superfight Championship: Defeated Jean Jacques Machado

ADCC 2013 –99 kg: secured silver medal, in Beijing

Year	Division	Event	Medal
2013	99	ADCC	Silver

Lister is a 4th-degree black belt. Jeffery Higgs awarded him the belt even despite the opposition. A breakdown of his main achievements as a black belt is given below.

Two Times Winner of Ultimate Fighting Championship at the UFC

Won King of the Cage Championship (KOTC) 

Winner of UFC Fight Night 6

Winner of Pride Bushido 6.

Dean Lister Vs Rodney Moore

Dean Lister Vs Jean Jacques Machado

Dean Lister VsRicardo Arona

Dean Lister Vs Jermy Horn

Dean Lister Vs Josh Barnett

Photo credit: @deanlisterbjj