James Irvin's middleweight debut has been placed on an indefinite hold after the former light heavyweight suffered a "massive" knee injury. The injury will force him out of his UFC 102 bout against Wilson Gouveia, according to radio personality Carmichael Dave.

According to Dave's report, Irvin's knee injury will require reconstructive surgery sometime in the next few days and he's expected to miss 6-10 months. He injured the same right knee that he underwent surgery for previously after tearing his ACL and MCL in a loss against Thiago Silva at UFC 71.

This isn't Irvin's first set back this year as he was originally scheduled to fight at UFC 98 against Drew Mcfedries, however, he was forced to withdraw from that event with a torn meniscus in his right knee.

He was also dealt a nine-month suspension for testing positive for Methadone and Oxymorphone after his loss against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC Fight Night 14 last July.

Prior to the loss against Silva, he'd won two straight, including an 8-second knockout win over Houston Alexander. Ten of Irvin's 14 career wins have come by TKO or KO and he holds other career wins over former WEC light-heavyweight champ Doug Marshall, Terry Martin and Luiz Cane.

Reports have surfaced that TUF 3 middleweight runner-up Ed Herman is in talks to replace Irvin against Gouveia.

UFC 102 takes place on August 29 in Portland, Oregon and will be headlined by a heavyweight bout between MMA legends Randy Couture and Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Make sure to check back with us the day of the event for free, live, round-by-round coverage of UFC 102 right here at FiveKnuckles.com! Join expert analyst Mike Williams as he takes you through the entire fight card blow-by-blow and then keep it right here for all the post-fight news and notes you can handle!