Bryan Baker – Far from Average

By Thomas Gerbasi

The two hours of waiting were torture, worse than anything Bryan Baker had ever experienced in his six fight mixed martial arts career, but he had no choice but to wait when the WEC called his manager and trainer Thomas Denny with “a proposition.”

“It was crazy,” said Baker. “They called Thomas and told him that they had a proposition for us. They said ‘give us a couple of hours and we’ll call you back.’ It was torture. I was so anxious to know because deep down inside I just knew it was the chance I had been waiting for.”

Baker (6-0) was already in training for a preliminary bout on Wednesday’s WEC card in Las Vegas against fellow prospect Logan Clark, but when the WEC called back with an opportunity to not only jump on to the televised portion of the card, but to do so against a legitimate contender and former title challenger in Chael Sonnen, it was an offer Baker couldn’t refuse.

“We were excited from the beginning of it and it’s what we’ve been working hard towards,” said Baker of replacing champion Paulo Filho in the bout against Sonnen. “I’ve just been training so hard for this opportunity, and I believe in myself, Thomas and my team, Team Wildman, believe in me and when you get us all together, you can make a champion.”

It’s a gutsy move to say the least, with the talented but still developing 22-year old taking on a 31 fight veteran in Sonnen, a fighter who has been in with the likes of Filho, Jeremy Horn, Trevor Prangley, Amar Suloev, Forrest Griffin, and Jason Lambert, among others. But Baker isn’t worried about stepping into the cage against the former All-American wrestler, and he isn’t reinventing the wheel in the week and a half since he got his new opponent.

“I’ll change my gameplan a little, but it’s pretty much the same routine, the same basics, and that’s going out there to dominate,” he said. As for Sonnen’s resume, Baker admits that his first exposure to the veteran came in his losing effort to Filho last December.

“He was decent,” said Baker. “Nothing that would make me hesitate when it comes to fighting him.”

You can call it youth, call it unbreakable self-confidence, but Baker, a native of West Covina, California who now fights out of Victorville, just gives credit to his mother, who told him to not settle for the bare minimum in anything in life.

“Any challenge that I’ve ever gotten in my life, if I just put my mind to it, I just go and get it,” he said. “Thomas (Denny) has helped me believe in myself and has taught me how to sacrifice and how to think like a champion. But mainly, my mom always told me I’m not average. That’s how I was raised, and it’s always been my mentality.”

He’s been far from average in his fight career thus far, winning four pro fights in a row by TKO or submission before entering the WEC with a bang last September with a first round stoppage of The Ultimate Fighter alum Jesse Forbes. In December, ‘The Beast’ made it two in a row in the organization with a split decision win over previously unbeaten Eric Schambari. It’s been a rapid rise to say the least.

“I have the heart of a lion,” said Baker. “When I set my mind to something, I don’t give up and I keep pushing to do it right, so it’s shocked a lot of people that I’m headed to the top of the WEC’s 185 pound weight class in less than a year and a half. I had my first pro fight in January of ’07, so it’s been a short road, but I put my heart into it and believed in myself, and I was able to make things happen.”

Can he topple Sonnen though, immediately making a case for himself as a future middleweight title contender after just a handful of fights? I wouldn’t want to be the one counting him out.

“I’m ready for it all,” said Baker. “I get excited for each day to come to see what I can learn, how I can push myself, and what limits I can surpass. I love the challenge and competition of it and proving people wrong. But I hope they see how bad I want this, how bad I want to become the best, and where my heart’s at.”