Bryan Baker (born October 13, 1985) is an American former professional mixed martial artist who competed in the Middleweight division.
A professional MMA competitor since 2007, Baker fought in various promotions, most notably World Extreme Cagefighting and Bellator.
Baker was also a competitor in the second season of Bellator's Middleweight Tournament in 2010, reaching the final against Alexander Shlemenko.
Baker began his professional mixed martial arts career in early 2007 for the Cage of Fire promotion in Mexico.
Baker then signed for World Extreme Cagefighting and made his debut at WEC 30 against Jesse Forbes.
At the same card, Chael Sonnen was scheduled to fight Paulo Filho in a middleweight title rematch.
Baker then stepped in at short notice once again, this time, against Spencer Canup for the CFP Middleweight Championship.
[9] Baker then returned to MFC and was scheduled to fight former UFC Middleweight title contender, Thales Leites.
After 2:29 of the first round, Baker managed to submit his opponent with a triangle choke, which advanced him to the final of the middleweight tournament.
[14] After early exchanges between the two fighters, Shlemenko hit Baker with a strong liver shot, followed by a combination that dropped him.
[14] On September 21, 2010, it was revealed that Baker was battling chronic myelogenous leukemia and had only gone into remission three weeks prior.
[16] After escaping the submission attempt, Horn's response was somewhat tame and at the end of three rounds, Baker was declared the winner via unanimous decision (30–27, 29–28, 29–28).
He faced Carlos Alexandre Pereira in the opening round of the tournament at Bellator 63 and won via split decision.