James Wilks, a British welterweight who won season nine of the UFC's Ultimate Fighter just three years ago, has elected to retire after seeing his career set back by a slew of injuries.

The 34-year-old made the announcement on Twitter over the weekend.

Wilks, who is from Leicestershire, England, represented his home country in a 2009 season with international flavor, dubbed TUF: United States vs. United Kingdom.

During the competition, he beat recent UFC 145 co-main event fighter Che Mills, Frank Lester twice and then tapped out DeMarques Johnson with a rear naked choke in the final to win the trophy.

Memorably during the season, Johnson offered Lester money to knock out Wilks' teeth, and as it turned out, Wilks knocked out four of Lester's teeth with a knee from the clinch.

He went 2-2 in four official trips in the octagon. Aside from his victory over Johnson -- the final is the only TUF bout to be sanctioned as an "official" fight -- he won a UFC 115 bout against Peter Sobotta, but lost matches against Matt Brown and Claude Patrick.

Wilks' last time in the cage was well over one year ago, when he fell to Patrick at UFC 120 in October 2010.

He was supposed to fight against Amir Sadollah last March but was forced out due to a serious knee injury.

Wilks retires with a 7-4 career record.

He has said he will spend his future concentrating on his gym, Lightning MMA in Laguna Hills, California.