Bellator Fighting Championships continued to bolster its roster of Season 2 middleweight tournament fighters today with the signing of 11-1 former WEC standout Bryan “The Beast” Baker.

The 6-foot, 3-inch-tall Baker will be familiar to many Bellator fans thanks to his dominating victory during a special feature fight at Bellator VIII last June. He also boasts wins over UFC veteran Rory Singer (first round KO), TUF’s Jesse Forbes (first round TKO) and a host of WEC veterans.

“The Beast is a dangerous addition to our middleweight tournament,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “He caught my eye back at Bellator VIII and I knew then and there that he would make a big impact on our 185-pound challenger tournament.”

Baker is the second confirmed competitor in Bellator’s upcoming eight-man Season 2 middleweight tournament, joining Eric Schambari, who also boasts a near-flawless 11-1 professional record, with his sole loss coming against The Beast. Bellator will also conduct tournaments at 145, 155, 170 lbs. during Season 2, which begins April 8th. The winners in each division will be declared No. 1 contenders to the current roster of champions.

The 24-year-old Baker was born and raised in the High Desert of California, where he was a standout high school wrestler. He later earned a black belt in judo and now trains in vale tudo at the Team Wildman gym in Denver.

“I’m a fighter pure and simple … I never really wanted to do anything else,” Baker said. “From my first meal until the time I go to sleep, it’s all about fighting, all about my career.”

Baker says his singular goal is to advance through Bellator’s Season 2 tournament to earn the chance to take on reigning World Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard.

“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. I’d say that he better stay on top of his training or else he’s in for a big surprise.”

Each of Bellator’s 24 fights during Seasons 2 and 3 will be distributed live in prime time on Thursday nights on FOX Sports Net and its regional sports network affiliates. The top moments from each week’s live events will then be condensed into an action-packed 30-minute highlight show, broadcast every Saturday night, late night, on NBC. A one-hour highlight show will air in Spanish on Telemundo every Saturday night from midnight to 1 a.m.

For complete Bellator coverage, including the latest Bellator news, Bellator fight cards, and Bellator rumors, stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.

Leites rebounded from a two fight losing streak that got him cut from the UFC by defeating Lister in what turned out to be a lackluster affair. Leites was the more aggressive fighter in the contest, and landed many more strikes standing, and on the ground. Ironically Lister seemed to have the same gameplan against Leites that Leites tried to utilize against Anderson Silva.

In the co-main event of the evening Jason MacDonald earned a controversial split decision over Solomon Hutcherson. The decision was not controversial in that the fight was close, but rather the ringside judges initially miscalculated the scores and the fight was announced as a draw, but between fights their error was corrected. MacDonald controlled most of the fight, and attempted several different submissions including arm triangles, triangles, rear naked chokes, and arm bars to earn the victory.

Earlier in the evening Ryan Jimmo edged Emanuel Lewis in a contest that resembled Brandon Vera vs. Randy Couture, only with more strikes, Bryan Baker defeated Art Santore in an exciting fight, that saw Santore’s face well bloodied on several occasions, and Dwayne Lewis stopped Marvin Eastman with a solid upper cut just before the first round bell, but threw several more punches to the downed Eastman even after the referee intervened.

Full results for MFC 23 were:

• Thales Leites def. Dean Lister via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Jason MacDonald def. Solomon Hutcherson via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)
• Ryan Jimmo def. Emanuel Newton via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• Bryan Baker def. Art Santore via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
• Dwayne Lewis def. Marvin Eastman via KO (punch) — 4:58 Round 1
• Jesse Juarez def. Joe Christopher via Unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Nick Penner def. Ryan Fortin via submission (rear naked choke) — 3:31 Round 2
• Ryan Machan def. Kajan Johnson via submission (rear naked choke) — 3:30 Round 1
• Billy Hua def. Kenny Hamilton via TKO (punches) — 0:20 Round 2

Pictured: Thales Leites

MFC 23 is set to take place tonight at the River Cree Resort and Casino, and will air live on HDNet beginning at 10pm ET.

Full weigh-in results were:

MAIN CARD (televised)

• Thales Leites (185.5) vs. Dean Lister (185)
• Jason MacDonald (185.5) vs. Solomon Hutcherson (184)
• Ryan Jimmo (205) vs. Emanuel Newton (204.5)
• Bryan Baker (183.5) vs. Art Santore (185.5)
• Marvin Eastman (203) vs. Dwayne Lewis (205)
• Joe Christopher (171) vs. Jesse Juarez (170.5)

PRELIMINARY CARD (untelevised)

• Ryan Fortin (250) vs. Nick Penner (227)
• Ryan Machan (156) vs. Kajan Johnson (154.5)
• Kenny Hamilton (155) vs. Billy Hau (154.5)

If you can’t catch the action tonight on HDNet, check back at MMAFrenzy.com tomorrow for full event results.

Full fight cards for all three events are below.

MFC 23: Unstoppable

• Dean Lister vs. Thales Leites
• Jason MacDonald vs. Solomon Hutcherson
• Bryan Baker vs. Art Santore
• Ryan Jimmo vs. Emanuel Newton
• Marvin Eastman vs. Dwayne Lewis
• Jesse Juarez vs. Joe Christopher
• Ryan Fortin vs. Nick Penner *
• Ryan Machan vs. Kajan Johnson *

*Unbroadcasted preliminaries.

Bitetti Combat 5

• Pedro Rizzo vs. Valentin Overeem
• Murilo “Ninja” Rua vs. Jason Jones
• Fábio Maldonado vs. Travis Wiuff
• Gustavo Ximu vs. Ricco Washington
• Glover Teixeira vs. Jeff Monson
• Eduardo Pamplona vs. Tommy Speer
• Alessandro “Alemão” Steffen vs. Francimar Bodão

Shark Fights 7

• Trevor Prangley vs. Marcus “Money” Sursa
• Liam McCarty vs. Tony Castillo
• Steven “The Hooligan” Ray vs. Kyle Bracey
• Brandi Hainey vs. Yadira “Ya Ya” Anzaldua
• William Tyler Dodson vs. Jared Lopez
• Chris Cruz vs. Eric Rodriguez
• Severo Padilla vs. Anselmo Luis Luna Jr
• Allen Chase Watson vs. Josh “The Lunatic” Luna

Pictured: Thales Leites

In addition to the belt, Soto takes home a $100,000 prize for winning Bellator’s 145-pound tournament following previous victories over Ben Greer and tournament favorite Wilson Reis.

After dropping Reyes to the canvas in the opening seconds of the fight and unleashing ground and pound for the majority of the bout, Soto applied the fight-ending choke as time ticked down in round two, forcing Reyes to tap at the 4:11 mark of the round. Soto ups his undefeated record to 7-0 with the victory, while Reyes falls to 14-6 following the loss.

In the Bellator X co-headliner, featherweight Wilson Reis returned to the win column with a split decision victory over Richard Vargas with scores of 29-28, 29-28, and 28-29.

The official Bellator X Results were:

• Joe Soto def. Yahir Reyes via submission (rear naked choke) — Round 2 4:11
• Wilson Reis def. Roberto Vargas via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Bryan Baker def. Matt Horwich via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
• Diego Garijo def. Saad Awad via submission (rear naked choke) — Round 1, 4:45
• Israel Giron def. Phillip Brown via submission (rear naked choke) — Round 1, 2:42
• Travis Browne def. Mychal Clark via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Jesse Juarez def. Mikey Gomez via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Nick Moghaddam def. Lamar Jiles via disqualification (illegal knee) — Round 2, 4:14

[Pictured: Joe Soto]

Among the fighters who hit the scales were featherweight finalists Joe Soto (144) and Yahir Reyes (144.5), who will square off tonight in the promotion’s first tournament final with the Bellator 145-pound title and a $100,000 prize on the line.

The complete Bellator X weigh-in results were:

• Yahir Reyes (144.5) vs. Joe Soto (144)
  Bellator Featherweight Championship
• Roberto Vargas (145.5) vs. Wilson Reis (145.5)
• Bryan Baker (184.25) vs. Matt Horwich (184.5)
• Saad Awad (156) vs. Diego Garijo (155.5)
• Phil Brown (153.5) vs. Israel Giron (155)
• Mychal Clark (217) vs. Travis Browne (254)
• Mike Gomez (173) vs. Jesse Juarez (175)
• Nick Moghaddam (206.5) vs. Lamar Jiles (202)

The first of the co-main events was a welterweight superfight that saw Nick “The Goat” Thompson take a unanimous decision victory over Paul “Semtex” Daley. Thompson kept Daley at bay with his reach and jab during the first and second rounds on the feet, as well as dominating the fight from top position in those two rounds, despite taking some heavy leg kicks from Daley in the first minute of the fight. Besides the leg kicks in the first minute, Daley only really looked strong after a looping punch caught Thompson behind the ear in the second, leading to some ground and pound before the bell sounded to end of the round. The third round, howeverm was nothing but domination by the eventual winner Thompson.

The other co-main event was a barn burner on the ground between Pat Healy and Ryan Ford for the MFC Welterweight Championship. Healy was the more dominant fighter much of the fight, but Ford showed a lot of resiliency and great submission defense throughout the fight. Each round saw both fighters scoring takedowns and reversals in what was a great, evenly matched fight. However in the end Healy retained his belt via split decision (48-47 three times).

The event’s full results were:

• Pat Healy def. Ryan Ford via split decision
• Nick Thompson def. Paul Daley via unanimous decision
• Antonio McKee def. Derrick Noble via unanimous decision
• Bryan Baker def. Rory Singer via KO (punches) — Round 1, 4:55
• David Heath def. Roger Hollet via submission (guillotine choke) — Round 1, 2:30
• Solomon Hutcherson def. Dave Mewborn via unanimous decision
• Ryan Machan def. Simon Marini via submission (rear naked choke) — Round 1, 1:48
• Evan Sanguin def. Alain Hernandez via TKO (slam) — Round 1, 2:50
• Josh Russell def. Donovan Foley – Submission (triangle choke) — Round 1, 1:00
• Brad Zazulak def. Richard Symons via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 3:54

In the co-main event Team ROC’s Brandon Garner, who failed to make it into The Ultimate Fighter 8 house after kneeing a downed opponent in the tournament’s opening round, defeated Seth Marquez in the first round the claim the promotion’s bantamweight championship.

Jon Owens, Joseph Carroll, and Roger Carroll also earned victories on the fourteen-bout mixed professional and amateur card.

For more coverage of the event check out northcarolina.mmafrenzy.com.

• Brian Stann ($18,000) def. Doug Marshall ($10,000)
• Chael Sonnen ($34,000) def. Bryan Baker ($5,000)
• Marcus Hicks ($10,000) def. Ed Ratcliff ($7,000)
• Steve Cantwell ($8,000) def. Tim McKenzie ($6,000)
• Hiromitsu Miura ($8,000) def. Blas Avena ($6,000)
• Brock Larson ($24,000) def. John Alessio ($15,000)
• Richard Crunkilton ($20,000) def. Sergio Gomez ($4,000)
• Alex Serdyukov ($12,000) def. Ryan Stonitsch ($3,000)
• Kenji Osawa ($5,000) vs. Chris Manuel ($3,000)
• Logan Clark ($12,000) def. Scott Harper ($3,000)

MEDICAL SUSPENSIONS

• Doug Marshall must have right foot x-rayed and cleared by doctor or suspended until September 23rd. Minimum suspension until May 11th with no contact until April 26th.
• Bryan Baker suspended until May 11th with no contact until April 26th due to left eye laceration.
• Tim McKenzie suspended until April 26th with no contact until April 17th due to left foreheard laceration.
• Blas Avena suspended until May 26th with no contact until May 11th.
• Brock Larson must have jaw cleared by doctor or suspended until September 23rd. Minimum suspension until May 11th with no contact until April 26th.
• Richard Crunkilton suspended until April 26th with no contact until April 17th.
• Sergio Gomez suspended until May 11th with no contact until April 26th due to scalp laceration.
• Chris Manuel was suspended until April 3rd with no contact until April 3rd due to a right thumb contusion.
• Scott Harper must have left eye cleared by doctor due to a thumb in the eye.