USA TODAY: TUF 17 Finale's Faber, Jorgensen put friendship on hold for one night

(This story appeared in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)

LAS VEGAS – UFC bantamweights Urijah Faber and Scott Jorgensen share a management firm and each considers the other a true friend.

That’s why it makes perfect sense for them to want to punch each other in the mouth.

“It’s a real friendship,” Faber told USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “It goes back 11 years almost now, but it’s always been a competitive friendship.”

Faber and Jorgensen headline Saturday’s The Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center and airs on FX (9 p.m. ET) following prelims on FUEL TV (7 p.m. ET) and Facebook. The pair’s history dates back to their college days when Faber wrestled at the University of California-Davis and Jorgensen at Boise State.

“It’s one of those things where I know his family, he knows my family,” Faber said. “But this is our job, and my friends – the Team Alpha Male guys – we beat each other up every day. This is an opportunity to make some cash, put on a show and go down in history. This is something we can look back on and have bragging rights.”

Both Faber (27-6 MMA, 3-2 UFC) and Jorgensen (14-6 MMA, 3-2 UFC) credit their time as collegiate wrestlers for their willingness to step in the cage with a friend. Each remembers times when they were forced to compete against best friends to earn their spots as starters on their respective teams.

“We’re friends,” Jorgensen said. “On Saturday night, that ends, and we’ll go in there and battle for 25 minutes. Then we’ll go to our after-parties together, and it all goes back to the way it was before.

“It’s nothing we haven’t faced before through wrestling and just training. We go in there and spar with our friends every day. For me, it’s no different. I just get another fight in front of millions of people. It’s a main event. It just happens to be against my friend.”

The winner of Saturday’s headliner will find himself in good standing in the UFC’s bantamweight division, with Faber currently ranked No. 3 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com rankings and Jorgensen checking in at No. 6. Whether or not the win will be enough to earn a shot at current champion Dominick Cruz (19-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) or the winner of a June fight between interim titleholder Renan Barao (30-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) and Eddie Wineland (20-8-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC) remains to be seen. In the meantime, both expect an incredible fight.

“It’s going to be a great fight,” Faber said. “I feel like having friends in there competing kind of lets some of the tension off. I feel like I can really let loose in there, and I think he probably feels the same way.”

In addition to the headliner, the card also features the TUF 17 middleweight tournament final between Uriah Hall (7-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and Kelvin Gastelum (5-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), as well as a key women’s bout featuring Miesha Tate (13-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) vs. Cat Zingano (7-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) with the winner advancing to a “TUF 18? coaching spot opposite women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey this fall.

For more on The Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Urijah Faber)