(‘I’m so mad I could pull guard right now.’)

There’s no getting around it, Dean Lister had a bad, bad night against Yushin Okami at UFC 92.  His offense consisted of pulling guard, a few token efforts at striking, and takedown attempts that only became more half-hearted as the fight wore on.  Not surprisingly, he lost the decision, was showered with boos from the fans, and got his release from the UFC afterwards.  

Now Lister has posted a message to the UG apologizing to his fans and teammates:

Listen I had a very poor performance my last fight. Truth is that I let my team and my gym, my friends and definitely myself down for this fight. Its not only that I lost but I really showed a poor performance. I had a much better showing against Arona (even though that was only primarily a grappling fight that I lost) even in Pride who is a better fighter than Okami for sure. Things just didnt come together for me this fight. I trained so, so hard, I really trained hard but it didnt work out.

Nice, right?  He owns up to his poor performance, apologizes to the people he let down, but it doesn’t stop there:

I expect a few weak and mean tempered responses to my thread here, that is OK, I expect this thing from young whack offs who have no (zero) life experience. …Things in life are strange. All I can say is in late 90s I was mediocre at best in BJJ, but with some patience, I became world champion in ADCC Absolute WORLD CHAMP IN MOTHA FUCKIN BRAZIL!!!!!!!!! If you say that MMA is different than ADCC, that’s fine, I heard the same thing changing from Gi to No-Gi (that’s how long i’ve been around the damm game). …For those who really, really, really hate me and have the balls to come tell me to my face, I am very curious to meet you and to compare your superior style, technique and work ethic, even though I had a piss poor performance in UFC, i’m still in good shape. let me know if you want to "teach me a few MMA moves" cause I can really need the help and i’m an eager student. Only problems is you would have to come and see me in person….

Ah, the apology-turned-indignant challenge.  Thank you, internet.  This is why Al Gore created you.

Look, it’s easy to sympathize with Lister here.  Everyone can have a bad night, and he is a world-class grappler who could choke all of us out.  But as great a submissions fighter as he is, hasn’t he had enough time to develop some other aspect of his game by now?

Take Rashad Evans, for example, who broke into the UFC at around the same time Lister broke into Pride.  Evans was also extremely one-dimensional, but look at him now.  He’s grabbing his balls and knocking people out, not touting his old wrestling accomplishments and inviting internet punks down to his gym the way Dean Lister invites opponents into his guard.  

There’s a lesson to be learned there.  Let’s hope Lister figures out what it is and comes back stronger for it.