Dean Richard Lister (February 13, 1976 in San Diego, California ) is an American mixed martial arts fighter and a former KOTC champion. He currently fights at the Middleweight division after recently moving down from the Light Heavyweight class. Dean was also an assistant coach on the third season of the Spike TV reality show, The Ultimate Fighter.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 Dean 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, Dean Lister visited the Fabio 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.

Since 1997, Dean has been working as an instructor for Santos. Lister teaches both beginner and advanced students at Throwdown Elite Training Center in San Diego. The classes typically begin with Dean teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu techniques, followed by Jiu Jitsu sparring.

In 2000, Dean Lister traveled to Brazil to train at the Top Team Academy for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Rio de Janeiro.

Dean Lister currently holds the rank of black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, given to him by Jeffrey Higgs, who holds a black belt under Fábio Santos. He maintains that is "the biggest and most challenging sport that exists". Lister does not favor any particular technique, although he is mostly known for his leg attacks (foot locks and knee locks).

Dean Lister is a two-time U.S. National Sambo champion, a four-time U.S. Machado National Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Champion (weight class and open classes), and a National Gracie Jiu Jitsu champion.

Dean was invited three times (2000, 2003, and 2005) to the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) championship, a prestigious grappling tournament consisting only of top 16 grapplers in the world of each weight class. Lister won the Abu Dhabi Absolute Division championship in 2003, as well as two Superfights in 2003 and 2005; in addition, he set a tournament record by defeating 4 of his opponents consecutively (3 by submission) in 2003.

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

Dean 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, Dean avenged this loss by submitting Jeremy Horn with a guillotine choke in the TUF 7 finale.

Dean lost a 3 round unanimous decision to Yushin Okami at UFC 92 on December 27th, 2008.