Joe Proctor became the third straight Team Faber fighter to win his first round matchup, earning a first-round tapout win over Chris Tickle on Friday night’s edition of TUF Live.
Tickle came out with a strong striking game, scoring with a series of left hooks in the early part of the round. With about one minute left, Proctor ducked under a punch and took Tickle down. He immediately swarmed, taking his back and applying a rear naked choke. Tickle defended it at first, but Proctor reapplied it tighter, forcing his opponent to tap at 4:42 of the round.
“That’s my game,” Proctor said. “Lauzon MMA. I’m a jiu-jitsu guy. I love to bang, I love to take punches off the chin, but I did my job here.”
Proctor had come into the fight as the favorite, but it was no walkover as Tickle found his mark with striking early. Afterward, Proctor said Tickle hit “like a truck,” but found a way to move the fight to his strengths on the ground.
Proctor follows in the footsteps of Mike Chiesa and Al Iaquinta with consecutive wins as Urijah Faber saw his team take the lead on the season with a 3-2 head-to-head tally.
With control of the pick, Faber chose John Cofer to face Vinc Pichel in next week’s bout.
4:42 of the first.