Lister Gunning for Bushido Victories and PRIDE GP Slot
Gunning for Bushido
Mike Sloan Apr 1, 2005
Dean Lister is one of those
fighters that most mixed martial arts fans hear a lot about. Many
would expect Lister to have dozens of professional bouts under his
belt after spending much of his earlier days fighting in
off-the-wall minor organizations’ events.
Bouts in dingy clubs out in the middle of nowhere next to Open Pass, Nebraska or Salmon Arm, British Columbia; in featured bouts at Hillbilly Willy’s Free-For-All Fence Fights events would come to mind. But a closer look shows Lister has fought less than 12 times professionally and has competed solely in top fight organizations.
Until his last fight at PRIDE: Bushido 4, every single one of
Lister’s bouts took place within the confines of King of the Cage.
Seeing Lister at virtually every major MMA event and after being in
the corners of several top fighters, it actually comes as a shock
that Lister has fought so little on the pro circuit.
Of course, he spends much of his time competing in submission grappling events and training other fighters, but that doesn’t mean that Lister is a slouch. While he is on a relatively disappointing two-fight losing streak, the San Diego, Calif.-based Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert is undaunted.
Lister is one of those guys that seemingly only the hardcore MMA fans and fellow fighters know about and respect. He has been dogged at times for being too lax during fights and has been criticized for being “boring.” But to Lister, it’s all just a part of the sport and knowing that one can’t please everybody at all times keeps him at ease.
“No matter who you are or what you do, you are going to have people who hate on you,” Lister told Sherdog.com last week. “And then you are also going to have people who like you and like what you do. Everyone knows that I want to submit my opponents. Anybody who does submissions or has been caught in submissions will probably show me some respect.”
American fans, believes Lister, sometimes don’t understand his strategy or are turned off by his ground game. Usually a patient fighter is criticized as being boring or too cautious, but Lister disagrees. Being an expert in BJJ, Lister concedes that through patience and technique, the submissions will come.
“Unfortunately my game is like tying and untying knots,” Lister said. “If you have a tight knot on a rope in front of you, you need a little bit of time to untie it. If I only have, like, 30 seconds to untie that knot, I might not be able to untie it in time. Unfortunately because of the time limits, my game can’t always fully be shown. If I am fighting a very complex fighter, I need some time to figure him out, to “untie” him. So sometimes my style isn’t fully shown. But I think I do get respect. I’m happy with how people (within the sport) treat me.”
With that said, Lister is excited about embarking on his second trek into Japan where the crowd is more forgiving and much more educated about the sport and its complexities compared to their American counterparts.
“The crowd in Japan is really cool,” Lister gushed. “I don’t know if the crowd liked my last fight in Japan (a split decision loss to Amar Suloev) because it was such a standoff match. But overall, the Japanese are more educated about the game. They don’t just want the fights to be, like, hitting the guy and hitting the guy. They are impressed by a technical ground game, impressed by technical knockouts and they are even impressed sometimes by the brazen brawler.
“They are impressed by everything and they respect all kinds of styles. That is what’s cool about the Japanese. Of course, some of the people over here are like that, too, but generally speaking, the Japanese have had this sport around their culture for a much longer time. They are aware and really know what’s going on, they pay attention and they really show expressions of “oohs” and “ahs.” But overall, it’s pretty quiet. I like the crowd over there a lot.”
Being such an elaborate jiu-jitsu artist, one would figure the almost dead-silent cocoons that are Japanese arenas would be ideal for Lister But, according to him, the decibel levels within a crowd mean little while he fights.
“It is something to know before and after a fight,” he said, “but it really doesn’t matter to me. If people are just yelling stuff out, I don’t get out of focus and if the people are quiet, I just take it as a sign of respect. So if someone is not respectful or insightful it’s not going to change my game.”
Bouts in dingy clubs out in the middle of nowhere next to Open Pass, Nebraska or Salmon Arm, British Columbia; in featured bouts at Hillbilly Willy’s Free-For-All Fence Fights events would come to mind. But a closer look shows Lister has fought less than 12 times professionally and has competed solely in top fight organizations.
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Of course, he spends much of his time competing in submission grappling events and training other fighters, but that doesn’t mean that Lister is a slouch. While he is on a relatively disappointing two-fight losing streak, the San Diego, Calif.-based Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert is undaunted.
In fact, so confident of victory in PRIDE: Bushido 6’s four-man
middleweight tournament is he that any neutral or negative press he
may have received will be moot, and Lister is certain of that.
Lister is one of those guys that seemingly only the hardcore MMA fans and fellow fighters know about and respect. He has been dogged at times for being too lax during fights and has been criticized for being “boring.” But to Lister, it’s all just a part of the sport and knowing that one can’t please everybody at all times keeps him at ease.
“No matter who you are or what you do, you are going to have people who hate on you,” Lister told Sherdog.com last week. “And then you are also going to have people who like you and like what you do. Everyone knows that I want to submit my opponents. Anybody who does submissions or has been caught in submissions will probably show me some respect.”
American fans, believes Lister, sometimes don’t understand his strategy or are turned off by his ground game. Usually a patient fighter is criticized as being boring or too cautious, but Lister disagrees. Being an expert in BJJ, Lister concedes that through patience and technique, the submissions will come.
“Unfortunately my game is like tying and untying knots,” Lister said. “If you have a tight knot on a rope in front of you, you need a little bit of time to untie it. If I only have, like, 30 seconds to untie that knot, I might not be able to untie it in time. Unfortunately because of the time limits, my game can’t always fully be shown. If I am fighting a very complex fighter, I need some time to figure him out, to “untie” him. So sometimes my style isn’t fully shown. But I think I do get respect. I’m happy with how people (within the sport) treat me.”
With that said, Lister is excited about embarking on his second trek into Japan where the crowd is more forgiving and much more educated about the sport and its complexities compared to their American counterparts.
“The crowd in Japan is really cool,” Lister gushed. “I don’t know if the crowd liked my last fight in Japan (a split decision loss to Amar Suloev) because it was such a standoff match. But overall, the Japanese are more educated about the game. They don’t just want the fights to be, like, hitting the guy and hitting the guy. They are impressed by a technical ground game, impressed by technical knockouts and they are even impressed sometimes by the brazen brawler.
“They are impressed by everything and they respect all kinds of styles. That is what’s cool about the Japanese. Of course, some of the people over here are like that, too, but generally speaking, the Japanese have had this sport around their culture for a much longer time. They are aware and really know what’s going on, they pay attention and they really show expressions of “oohs” and “ahs.” But overall, it’s pretty quiet. I like the crowd over there a lot.”
Being such an elaborate jiu-jitsu artist, one would figure the almost dead-silent cocoons that are Japanese arenas would be ideal for Lister But, according to him, the decibel levels within a crowd mean little while he fights.
“It is something to know before and after a fight,” he said, “but it really doesn’t matter to me. If people are just yelling stuff out, I don’t get out of focus and if the people are quiet, I just take it as a sign of respect. So if someone is not respectful or insightful it’s not going to change my game.”
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