Lister: Toney almost submitted me
Percy Crawford: How is everything going Dean? Dean Lister: It’s all going good man; all going good. I’m training hard….
Percy Crawford: How is everything going Dean?
Dean Lister: It’s all going good man; all going good. I’m training hard. I’m trying to get back in shape, you know?
PC: I know a lot of guys look to you for grappling purposes. Who are some of the guys you have been training?
DL: I have so many friends down in San Diego, down in SoCal, but the biggest addition to the guys I have been training is James Toney. I recently worked with him a good bit. It’s a lot of guys down there wanting to learn Jiu Jitsu and Toney is one of them. It’s good, you know?
PC: What do you think of James coming over to MMA and how is his training going?
DL: He learns really fast. I mean, of course his striking is unparalleled, but I tell you what, for a big guy, he moves fast. He’s not all fancy with things yet and he’s not the most technical guy on the ground, but he is so strong man. He is a strong guy.
PC: You can plead the fifth on this, but from what I understand, he not only caught Mo in a submission, but he almost pulled something out on you as well.
DL: (Laughing) I won’t plead the fifth man (laughing). It’s actually rewarding when my students start picking up little things that I’ve been showing them. What happened was, I was trying to pass his guard. He didn’t pull guard or anything like that. I’m not going to say how we got to the ground because I don’t want to give anything that he’s trying to do away. We were going over a few things and I passed his guard and I got a mount and he turned and like grabbed my foot. I’m lucky he didn’t break it. He was close to breaking it. I think James has to learn how to not tweak submissions in training (laughing). I mean, I guess he didn’t tweak it, but he was really waiting on a tap (laughing). But he landed like a toe hold and I didn’t really get to see exactly what he was doing because my back was turned, but he twisted it pretty good. I had to roll out of it, so I don’t know if I should count that as a submission or not, but I was impressed. Let’s just say James Toney almost submitted me! I had to get up and give him some dap for it. I was very proud of him. He is a fast learner.
PC: How do you see his fight against Randy going?
DL: I tell you what man, it’s going to be a good fight no matter what. I know Randy well and he works real hard. Randy’s hands have gotten better. He’s been training his boxing forever. Of course his boxing doesn’t stack up to Toney’s, but I think Randy may be willing to mix it up a little bit in there.
