Former Alabama linebacker Eryk Anders is scheduled to make his UFC debut on July 22.

Anders won the Legacy Fighting Alliance's middleweight championship his last time out, and he announced via Twitter on Thursday afternoon that he'd signed for a bout with Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world's largest promoter in mixed martial arts.

Anders is scheduled square off against Rafael Natal at UFC on FOX 25 on July 22 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Long Island, New York.

Natal-Anders is expected to be one of the televised preliminary bouts.

Anders is joining the July 22 card on short notice as an injury replacement. Natal was supposed to fight Tim Williams, who was an injury replacement for Alessio Di Chirico. But Williams pulled out of the fight on Thursday with an injury of his own.

Natal has a 21-8-1 MMA record. He's had 16 UFC fights.

Anders defeated Brendan Allen of Slidell, Louisiana, by unanimous decision to capture the inaugural LFA middleweight belt at LFA 14 on June 23 in Houston.

The bout went the full five rounds, with each of the three judges scoring the fight 49-46 in Anders' favor.

Anders lifted his professional MMA record to 8-0 by defeating Allen. It was only the second of Anders' fights to go past the first round.

Anders played his final game for Alabama in the Crimson Tide's 37-21 victory over Texas in the BCS national-championship game to cap the 2009 season. Anders led Alabama with seven tackles, including a fumble-causing sack of Texas quarterback Garret Gilbert with the Crimson Tide holding a 24-21 lead. Courtney Upshaw recovered the loose football for Alabama at the Texas 3-yard line with 3:02 left in the game, and the Tide rolled on to its first national title under coach Nick Saban.