Wilks Replaces Injured Ludwig at UFC Fight Night 24 in Seattle

“James Wilks has verbally agreed to step up against Amir Sadollah for UFC Fight Night,” company president Dana White stated on UFC.com. “‘TUF 7’ winner versus ‘TUF 9’ winner. Should be fun.”

Ludwig has reportedly suffered an injury to his sternum that will prevent him from competing at the event, which emanates from KeyArena in Seattle and airs live on Spike TV.

The event will be headlined by a light heavyweight confrontation between blue-chip prospect Phil Davis and Pride Fighting Championships veteran Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

Following his win at the “TUF 9” finale, Wilks has gone just 1-2 inside the Octagon, dropping bouts to Matt Brown and, most recently, Claude Patrick. The British expat is a veteran of King of the Cage and Gladiator Challenge competition, and has notched stoppages in six of his seven career wins.

Currently representing Lightning MMA and residing in California, the 30-year-old Wilks is a black belt in tae kwon do and a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. His lone victory since his win over DaMarques Johnson in the season-nine finale came at the expense of German Peter Sobotta at UFC 115.

Sadollah won season seven of the reality show as a middleweight, defeating C.B. Dollaway in the June 2008 finale. After having his hand raised against “The Doberman,” Sadollah was rudely welcomed to the welterweight ranks by powerful wrestler Johny Hendricks at UFC 101. The New Yorker rebounded from that 29-second TKO defeat by earning back-to-back victories over Phil Baroni and Brad Blackburn.

Sadollah is 1-1 in his last two outings, having dropped a unanimous decision to Dong Hyun Kim in May before besting the aforementioned Sobotta at UFC 122 in Oberhausen, Germany.