MMA fighter charged with spousal assault
A highly ranked MMA fighter from Kamloops has been charged with four counts of spousal assault, uttering threats and mischief.
Matt Baker, known as the ‘Riotmaker’ and ranked by one MMA website as the No. 8 professional light-heavyweight in Canada, is scheduled to appear in Kamloops provincial court Nov. 1.
He’s facing four assault charges: One that allegedly occurred on Dec. 31, one on May 15, and two on June 9, and one charge each of uttering threats and mischief, both from May 1, according to court documents.
Baker, 34, didn’t respond to a request for comment left on his Facebook page.
“We will defend those charges,” said his Kamloops lawyer, Jay Michi.
Baker is listed on MMA websites as being 6-feet or 6-foot-1, weighing more than 200 pounds.
He fights in the middleweight or light-heavyweight categories.
Baker was ranked this week as the eighth best fighter out of 54 across Canada in the light-heavyweight division and the fifth best fighter out of 40 in Western Canada, according to Tapology.com.
In June 2014, Baker, by his own account, confronted a burglar after being awakened at 3 a.m. one night in the Kamloops home he shared with his fiancée by an intruder he called a “crackhead,” according to an account on MMAfighting.com.
Using various wrestling and jiu-jitsu holds, he detained the intruder for 20 minutes until police arrived.
At the time he said he didn’t hit the man because he didn’t know if he legally could and he didn’t want to hurt his hands because he was preparing for an upcoming fight.
He told MMAfighting.com that he “choked him out a few times,” and that when the police arrived, “he was begging to be arrested.”
There is no record of charges laid against Baker in that incident.