The Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale: April 13, 2013 Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada UFC Bantamweight Contender Urijah Faber (-400) Profile: “The California Kid” Urijah Faber (27-6) has a long and storied career as one of the forefathers of the featherweight division. The longtime face of the WEC has made a mostly successful transition to the UFC’s bantamweight division, defeating Eddie Wineland in his UFC debut at UFC 128 before losing his hyped rematch with Dominick Cruz at UFC 132. However, the 33-year-old MMA veteran rebounded by quickly taking out former WEC bantamweight champion Brian Bowles at UFC 139 with his oft-used guillotine choke. Faber went on to coach opposite of Cruz on The Ultimate Fighter and was expected to meet him for the third time, but Cruz tore his ACL and temporarily left him without an opponent. He ended up fighting rising star Renan Barao for the interim title instead and was dominated in losing a unanimous decision. However, he bounced back nicely from that setback with a standing rear-naked choke of Ivan Menjivar at UFC 157. UFC Bantamweight Contender Scott Jorgensen (+280) Profile: Scott Jorgensen (14-6) blazed a path through the WEC bantamweight division by the end of 2010 and challenged Cruz for his title belt at WEC 53. Cruz would soundly defeat Jorgensen, snapping his five-fight winning streak. After that, the WEC closed up shop, and Jorgensen would take his NCAA Division I wrestling skills to the UFC, where he would debut with an impressive knockout win over Ken Stone at the TUF 13 Finale. The 30-year-old grappler would then dominate Jeff Curran with his superior wrestling at UFC 137 before dropping two straight fights for the first time of his career, losing to eventual interim champ Renan Barao and current No. 1 contender Eddie Wineland. Jorgensen got back on track at UFC on FOX 5 though with a Submission and Fight of the Night effort against John Albert. Opening TUF 17 Finale Odds Analysis: MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas made Faber a large -400 favorite (bet $400 to win $100) while Jorgensen opened as a +280 underdog (bet $100 to win $280) at Several Bookmakers sportsbook. This should be an extremely fun fight between two bantamweights who are both hungry for another title shot. While it may seem a bit surprising that Jorgensen and Faber never met in the WEC, Faber fought primarily at featherweight there until he made his bantamweight debut at WEC 52. Then at WEC 53, Jorgensen got to fight for the bantamweight title against Cruz, who beat him to retain his belt and became the first UFC champ at that weight class. Faber has not won consecutive bouts since defeating Wineland in his UFC debut, with his two losses since then coming against the champion Cruz and interim champ Barao. Jorgensen has won Fight of the Night bonuses in each of his last two bouts and promises to be as entertaining as anybody on the TUF 17 Finale card. That’s likely why he is taking on Faber here in the main event after flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson was originally scheduled to take on John Moraga but had to withdraw due to injury. Those tuning into this matchup will see a live dog in Jorgensen who is fully capable of pulling off the upset and a former champ in Faber with a lot of pride that can’t afford to lose if he wants to get back into the title mix at 135.
