Bryan Baker replaces injured Brent Weedman in Bellator tourney semifinals

Bellator MMA Season 6 welterweight tournament finalist Bryan Baker (18-4 MMA, 8-3 BFC) will get another shot at tournament glory, as he is replacing an injured Brent Weedman in the promotion's Season 8 welterweight bracket.

Bellator officials today announced the change, and Baker now meets Douglas Lima (23-5 MMA, 5-1 BFC) at this month's "Bellator 90: Martinez vs. Shamhalaev" event.

"You never like to see anyone suffer an injury, especially a quarterfinal winner, but when we learned of Brent's injury, Bryan was the first guy we had in mind, and like a true professional he jumped at the opportunity," Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney stated.

Bellator 90 takes place at Maverik Center in Salt Lake City. The main card airs on Spike TV following prelims on Spike.com. The card will be headlined by the featherweight tournament final between Rad Martinez (14-2 MMA, 4-0 BFC) and Shahbulat Shamhalaev (11-1-1 MMA, 2-0 BFC), a fight that was delayed from Season 7.

Baker hasn't fought since July, when he was submitted by Karl Amoussou in the finals of Bellator's Season 6 tourney. He suffered a similar fate in the final's of Bellator's Season 2 middleweight bracket when he suffered a TKO loss to Alexander Shlemenko.

"When I got the call, I was ready to rock and roll,” Baker stated. "I look at this opportunity as an absolute blessing. With our new child in the picture, this is an opportunity to make my family proud, show everyone what I've been working on and let 'The Beast' go at it like he always does.

"Douglas is a strong, powerful guy, but I'm going to use my reach advantage and show my strength. This is my destiny."

Bellator 90 also sees Ben Saunders (15-5-2 MMA, 6-2 BFC) face Raul Amaya (11-1 MMA, 2-1 BFC) in the other Season 8 welterweight semifinal matchup.