UFC’s Urijah Faber, Luke Rockhold among those entertained by Conor McGregor

Whatever disagreements showed up in Urijah Faber’s coaching rivalry with Conor McGregor as they filmed “The Ultimate Fighter” reality television series, action wrapped with mutual respect.

“I can appreciate a lot of things about his mentality. I see that it’s common in champions, a self-belief they have,” Faber said Wednesday in a meeting with reporters in downtown Los Angeles.

“It gets blown out of proportion because of the little interaction we had backstage, but if we really had a real beef, there would have been punches thrown, not just me slamming him up against a wall.”

“The Ultimate Fighter” debuts at 7 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports 1.

“I speak my mind, I love to fight. He speaks his mind, he loves to fight,” Faber said. “As a person, he’s a pretty decent dude and he’s being real, so I can appreciate that.”

The featherweights were matched as rival coaches after McGregor’s scheduled July 11 title shot against Jose Aldo was switched to a fight against Chad Mendes after Aldo injured his ribs while training.

Instead of a planned “TUF” coaching assignment against Mendes, the Sacramento fighter’s “Team Alpha Male” teammate Faber was inserted after McGregor’s second-round victory by stoppage.

“I lobbied for a fight against McGregor, we both lobbied,” Faber said. “It will make for great TV, but we were both yelling at each other … both tried to get the fight, and I was going to go over to Ireland and he wanted to fight over in Ireland also, but [UFC President] Dana [White] said I wasn’t getting the fight.”

Instead, on the heels of McGregor helping to draw a UFC-record $7.1-million live gate to MGM Grand in July, the Irishman will fight Aldo on Dec. 12 in the same Las Vegas arena.

Faber will fight Frankie Saenz on the Aldo-McGregor undercard.

“Conor’s intelligent in the way he’s approaching things,” Faber said. “He’s not being fake. He really believes, and he’s kind of right to be honest, he believes he’s the money fight right now. Other guys want to fight him because he’s the easier fight and they’ll probably make more money fighting him, when you count the pay-per-views.”

Tickets for UFC 194 go on sale Friday.

Middleweight Luke Rockhold will also be on the Aldo-McGregor card, fighting unbeaten champion Chris Weidman.

Rockhold also marvels at the McGregor phenomenon, which has made him the equal of the UFC’s other major attraction, Ronda Rousey.

“Good fighter, great talker … there can only be so many of those guys in the sport,” Rockhold said. “Not everyone can be a Conor McGregor, otherwise it would be a complete [crazy] show.

“We would probably lose our credibility here. He’s starting to believe his own hype, thinks he’s bigger than the sport now, which is kind of annoying. We’ll see how the future for him pans out. Usually guys that rise that fast fall even harder.”

The most significant test will be Aldo, the UFC’s top-ranked pound-for-pound fighter.

“We’ll see if [McGregor] can keep his crown -- I wouldn’t even say his crown, the guy is the No. 1 contender, not a champion,” Rockhold said. “He just needs to calm down a little bit.

“He could win the belt. I’m not saying he can’t, but he’s strutting around backstage … with the belt strapped around his waist, with his chest puffed up and it’s like cool … down. I don’t know what the guy is on, but Monster Energy [drink] is nothing!”