On a show with more at stake than most, there was little in the way of tension in Friday’s weigh-ins for Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter season 17 finals on FX.
Five of the night’s contests consist of fighters coming off the recently completed television season. None appeared to show a lot of animosity when staring down, even though with the exception of the championship match, all of the fighters could find themselves in must-win situations as far as remaining in UFC.
The idea of being familiar with your opponent is the theme to the show, given main eventers Urijah Faber (27-6) and Scott Jorgensen (14-6) are former training partners, and Faber was the person who recruited Jorgensen to get into the sport. Faber, the former WEC featherweight champion, can ill afford a loss, because it would remove him from his No. 2 contender spot and take him out of the bantamweight title picture.
Faber has been top three in his weight, first as a featherweight and later as a bantamweight, and always in the title picture, dating more than seven years.
Jorgensen, ranked as the No. 7 contender, has had one title match during his career, has won eight of 11, with his three losses coming to current champion Dominick Cruz, interim champion Renan Barao, and top contender Eddie Wineland. Faber would be the biggest win of his career.
When the two squared off and tried to stare each other down after weighing in, it almost seemed they were fighting from cracking a smile.
Uriah Hall (7-2), the most talked about fighter on the reality show in years, faces heavy underdog Kelvin Gastelum (6-0) in the finals.
Perhaps the biggest spotlight of all goes to the winner of the Miesha Tate (13-3) fight with Cat Zingano (7-0), since the winner not only gets a coaching spot on the fall season of Ultimate Fighter opposite Ronda Rousey, but a women’s bantamweight championship match as well.
Weigh-in results:
Facebook fights at 5:30 p.m. Eastern
Daniel Pineda (145) vs. Justin Lawrence (145)
Maximo Blanco (147)* vs. Sam Sicilia (146)
Bart Palaszewski (145) vs. Cole Miller (146)
Fuel fights at 7 p.m.
Bristol Marunde (185.5) vs. Clint Hester (185)
Jimmy Quinlan (185) vs. Dylan Andrews (186)
Collin Hart (184.5) vs. Luke Barnatt (185)
Kevin Casey (185) vs. Josh Samman (184.5)
FX fights at 9 p.m.
Gilbert Smith (185) vs. Bubba McDaniel (184.5)
Gabriel Gonzaga (261) vs.. Travis Browne (239)
Cat Zingano (136) vs. Miesha Tate (135.5)
Kelvin Gastelum (185) vs. Uriah Hall (185)
Urijah Faber (136) vs. Scott Jorgensen (135.5)
*Blanco was given one hour to cut to 146.