In a battle of technique versus tenacity, Team Faber’s Joe Proctor outlasted the aggressiveness of Team Cruz’s Chris Tickle en route to a submission victory in episode six of The Ultimate Fighter Live.
Tickle, who has been the perceived bad boy of this season, came out aggressive, throwing and landing powerful strikes, but Proctor — for the most part — avoided any major damage.
Late in round one, Proctor, who trains with UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon landed a takedown and quickly showed off his jiu-jitsu skills by locking in a rear-naked choke and forcing the tap at the 4:42 mark.
“Great finish. In the first round, I actually had Tickle picking him apart. He hit Proctor with some big shots and Proctor ate some solid punches,” said UFC president Dana White after the fight. “I thought Joe looked good but it looks like he’s going to need a lot of standup work. If he faces a guy in this competition that has better standup and better jiu-jitsu, he’s in trouble.”
Proctor was happy he was able to show patience and implement his game plan. “I didn’t want to come in and extend and get caught with something stupid,” he said. “We had a good game plan to weather the storm for the first half and if a takedown was there, take it. I took it and I finished my fight.”
His head coach, Urijah Faber, whose team has now won three fights in a row, is happy with the progress his team is making. “I’m excited. These guys have been working their butts off,” said Faber.
The turning point in the fight was the takedown, proving again that one small mistake can cost a fighter.
“I stuck to my game plan. I knew he was going to try and wrestle and take me down. I heard my corner telling me to get away from the cage. I thought I was far enough away but I wasn’t,” Tickle said.
“I made a mistake and didn’t listen to my corner well enough and he capitalized on it. It sucks. I was winning the fight and working hard.”
With the win, Team Faber retained control of fight selection and picked John Cofer to take on Team Cruz’s Vinc Pichel. The two will fight live next Friday.
“All these match-ups coming up are going to be pretty tough. So we went with a match-up that pitted two guys with different styles,” Faber said.
“Pichel is a dangerous fighter for sure. He’s got a real strong mental game, I can tell by talking to him. Cofer’s really strong also. He’s a south paw and he’s a wrestler and that’s Pichel’s weakness.”
