James Wilks

James Brett Wilks (born 5 April 1978) is a retired English professional mixed martial artist. He was the winner of Spike TV's The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom.

Biography

Wilks was born and raised in Leicestershire, England. He attended Uppingham School. After leaving Uppingham in 1996, Wilks went to Bournemouth University, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Land Management. He moved to the United States in June 2000.

Mixed martial arts career

Wilks began training TaeKwonDo and Bruce Lee's martial art style, Jeet Kune Do while living in the United Kingdom. He moved to the United States and began training under Erik Paulson with Combat Submission Wrestling. Wilks moved so he could get better at his jiu-jitsu and other ground skills. Wilks holds a black belt in TaeKwonDo and a Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

He had his first professional fight against The Ultimate Fighter 5 competitor, Roman Mitichyan. Wilks won the fight via armbar submission in the second round. After the fight he took around a year break from fighting so he could focus on training his students. He came back to have his second fight and lost to Jimmy Smith. Before going to tape The Ultimate Fighter 9, Wilks won the Gladiator Challenge welterweight title.