Dean Lister just revealed that he got into an altercation with a man when he saw that police were attempting to restrain him, as he ran to their assistance. It’s far from the first time that a trained martial artist has found themselves helping law enforcement in a violent scenario, but it isn’t every day that it’s someone at the same kind of level as Lister. He is a veteran MMA fighter with runs in PRIDE and the UFC, amassing a 13-7 record before eventually retiring from the sport. Not only that, but Lister is an incredible grappler and was actually the first American competitor inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame.
Lister holds a special place in the history of no gi grappling as one of the most successful American competitors of his generation and one of the pioneers of leglocks. He won the very first ADCC North American Trials back in 2002 and became the ADCC absolute champion the very next year in 2003. He kept up his winning ways in 2005 by taking home the superfight championship and eventually added a title in the under 99kg division to his collection in 2011. Dean Lister explained exactly how he was able to use his phenomenal grappling and MMA background to help restrain the man for police officers:
“I got into an altercation, I stopped the guy. This guy and this officer were responding… I actually had to take the guy down, mount him, and just hold him down for like four minutes. And yeah, I stopped him. He was hurting people, he was actually hitting other people, random people. So I did my good deed for the day I guess, right?”
Dean Lister announced that he needed to assist a police officer in restraining a man in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
