PUEBLO, Colo. – The Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series bucks into Missouri State University’s JQH Arena for the sixth consecutive year on Friday-Sunday, Sept. 12-14 for the PFIWestern.com Invitational, presented by Bass Pro. The birthplace of Route 66 will host three days of non-stop action, featuring thrilling, 8-second battles between the best bovine athletes in the business and the Top 35 bull riders in the world.
The bull riding action begins at 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12, 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 13, and 4:50 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14. Tickets, starting as low as $15, can be purchased at JQH Arena, PFI Western and missouristatetix.com or by calling (417) 836-7678, 1-888-476-7649 or PFI Western at (417) 889-2668.
Two of Missouri’s favorite PBR riders will be competing in this event, L.J. Jenkins who was born in Springfield and grew up in Highlandville and is currently ranked No. 14. Holt’s Brady Sims is ranked No. 20 in the world standings and is scheduled to compete as well.
Five former PBR World Champions will also be in attendance: Silvano Alves(2012, 2011), Renato Nunes, (2010), Kody Lostroh (2009), Guilherme Marchi (2008) and Mike Lee (2004).
Joining them will be Arkansas’s Chase Outlaw, Matt Triplett and rookie sensation Gage Gay.
On the other side of the battle are young bucking bulls from the American Bucking Bull Incorporated (ABBI). ABBI supplies up-and-coming bovine talent at select BFTS and Touring Pro Division events and will provide some of the bovine athletes this weekend. The ABBI is dedicated to unifying, developing and promoting the bucking bull industry through pedigree preservation, enhancement and promotion of bucking bull ownership, breeding and welfare. The organization also has development programs and holds events showcasing the world’s finest bucking bull stock. The ABBI is the third-largest cattle registry in the world and is set up to record and preserve the pedigrees of the world’s premier bucking bulls.
Jared Allen’s Magic Train (Jared Allen’s Pro Bull Team) will be one of the headlining bulls during Friday’s Round 1. The chocolate brown bovine has only been ridden once in his career and has an average bull score of 43 points in his outs. Magic Train will be matched up with Jason Malone. The two have never met before in BFTS competition. The lone rider to cover Magic Train is Kasey Hayes, who put up 87 points on him in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just a few weeks ago.
Bootdaddy.com, owned by PFI Western’s CEO Randy Little and Gene Owen, await the winner of Round 1 on Friday night in a special bonus round. If the Round 1 winner makes a qualified 8-second ride aboard Bootdaddy.com, he’ll win an additional $5,000.
The world title contenders are working hard to stay at the top and will have an intense fight on their hands this weekend. In Round 1, top-ranked Marchi is matched with Thunder Struck (H&C Bucking Bulls), a bull that has only had two outs in BFTS competition and has been ridden only once by Jenkins in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in May of this year.
Joao Ricardo Vieira, ranked No. 2 in the PBR world standings, faces a bull that has been untested in BFTS action. Cuervo (Miller Farm LLC) will be looking to make a name for himself, while Vieira wants to solidify his place in the standings
With Fabiano Vieira sitting in third place in the PBR world standings, just 180 points out of second place and 154 points ahead of Alves at No. 4, he’ll want to improve his standing when he meets One Shot (Sycamore Springs Ranch). The two met last year in Springfield with Vieira lasting only 4.19 seconds.
In Round 1, Alves will be ready for Diesel of Jared Allen’s Pro Bull Team. He will be looking to exact some revenge on his bovine counterpart as Diesel dumped the 2011 and 2012 World Champion three weeks ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Each of the Top 35 bull riders in the world will ride one bull on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Following Round 3 on Sunday, the 15 riders with the highest cumulative scores on two bulls will advance to the Built Ford Tough Championship Round where they will compete with one more bull. The overall event winner will be the rider with the highest combined score from all four rounds.
More than $140,000 is on the line in Springfield, as well as valuable points to gain towards the overall PBR World Championship.
The previous Springfield winners are:
2013 Claudio Crisostomo
2012 Cody Johnson
2011 Silvano Alves
2010 J.B. Mauney
2009 Guilherme Marchi
The PFIWestern.com Invitational will air on CBS Sports Network on Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. ET. All three days of competition will be broadcast exclusively online via PBR LIVE at www.pbr.com. To sign up for this exclusive broadcast, visit PBR LIVE now.
The PFIWestern.com Invitational is the 22nd of 27 events on the 2014 PBR Built Ford Tough Series. The season culminates with the Built Ford Tough World Finals in Las Vegas on Oct. 22-26. The finals will crown the 2014 PBR World Champion, who will receive the coveted championship buckle, a $1 million bonus and a new pickup truck from Ford, the title sponsor of the Built Ford Tough Series. Tickets sales and additional information about the World Finals can be found at www.worldfinals.pbr.com.
The PBR is celebrating 21 years of competition in 2014. Its Built Ford Tough Series is televised every week on CBS, CBS Sports Network and networks around the world. BFTS telecasts are produced for the PBR under a multi-year agreement with David Neal Productions, a Los Angeles-based production company led by 34-time Emmy® Award winner and Peabody Award winner David Neal, who serves as executive producer.
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