Bellator Fighting Championships on Friday announced it had signed World Extreme Cagefighting veteran
Bryan Baker to compete in its Season 2 middleweight tournament. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Baker joins fellow WEC castoff
Eric Schambari in the 185-pound draw, the winner of which will move into position to challenge Bellator middleweight titleholder
Hector Lombard. Baker suffered his lone career defeat to the world-ranked
Chael Sonnen in 2008.
“[Baker] is a dangerous addition to our middleweight tournament,” Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney said in a release. “He caught my eye back [in June], and I knew then and there that he would make a big impact on our 185-pound challenger tournament.”
The 23-year-old Baker will carry a five-fight winning streak into his next match. A black belt in judo, he last competed under the Maximum Fighting Championships banner two months ago, when he defeated
Art Santore by unanimous decision. Baker holds other notable victories against former International Fight League middleweight champion
Matt Horwich, “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 3 semi-finalist
Rory Singer and UFC veteran
Jesse Forbes.
“I’m a fighter, pure and simple,” Baker said. “I never really wanted to do anything else. From my first meal until the time I go to sleep, it’s all about fighting, all about my career.”
He wants a crack at the twice-beaten Lombard, a Pride Fighting Championships veteran who has won 12 consecutive fights.
“I put so much effort into my training that it gives me 100 percent confidence that I’m going to win every time,” Baker said. “Lombard has the belt, and I’m coming for his belt. He better stay on top of his training or else he’s in for a big surprise.”
Meanwhile, Bellator will bring back Season 1 featherweight tournament semi-finalist
Wilson Reis to compete in its latest 145-pound draw. Reis, a former EliteXC titleholder, suffered his only career defeat to reigning Bellator featherweight champion
Joe Soto in May.
“Wilson’s a very talented fighter at 145 and was just one judges’ decision away from advancing to the featherweight championship fight last season,” Rebney said. “The Soto-Reis fight was one of the best fights in a season of great fights, and the chance to potentially see a rematch between these two would be awesome. But first, Wilson has to get through a gauntlet of great fighters at 145.”
Reis, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, becomes the sixth entrant into Bellator’s Season 2 tournament at 145 pounds, joining
Joe Warren,
Patricio Freire,
William Romero,
Georgi Karakhanyan and
Bao Quach.
“More than anything, I want to get my rematch against
Joe Soto,” Reis said. “I’m a lot more mature now as a fighter and an athlete, a lot more prepared than I was before.”
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