One More Chance to Fight
Call outlasts Wildcard field for a shot at BFO Las Vegas Championship
Zach Call of Mullen, Neb., jumps his bull during the Wildcard Round of the Bullfighters Only Las Vegas Championship on Friday at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Call won the round and advanced to Saturday’s short round. (TODD BREWER PHOTO)
LAS VEGAS – Zach Call felt like he left some points on the board in his first-round bout at the Bullfighters Only Las Vegas Championship.
He made sure that didn’t happen Friday during the event’s Wildcard Round at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
The Mullen, Neb., man dominated the first round of the Wildcard with an 85.5-point fight to advance to the day’s final round with Toby Inman of Davis Junction, Ill., who had an 85.5 in the second round.
It was a head-to-head match between the young gun Call and the veteran Inman, with only the winner moving on to Saturday’s BFO Las Vegas Championship finale, which takes place at 11 a.m., also at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. It will be followed by a “sessions” performance at 1:30 p.m. Tickets for the final day of the BFO Las Vegas Championship are on sale at HardRockHotel.com and AXS.com.
“I wanted to push my bulls today as much as I could and see where the cards fall,” said Call, who matched moves with 12X and Costa Fighting Bulls’ Sid Vicious for 87 points to end Inman’s run for the title. “I was watching film of my fight from the other day, and I noticed a few things where I could get some more points.”
He got them Friday, especially in his final battle with Sid Vicious.
“I had seen that short-round bull at the Roughy Cup,” he said. “I was excited to have him, but he got my legs there at the end.”
In fact, both Call and Inman were hooked by their bulls in the final round. Call was the first to go and had a strong fight through most of his 60-second bout. It was only at the end that Sid Vicious dumped him to the ground.
“I don’t really like being the first guy, because you don’t know what you need to do,” Call said. “Toby came out and did everything he could.”
True to form, Inman started his fight with a back flip over his bull and stayed close to the animal. He was dumped to the ground twice in his 85.5-point battle, but he continued to go after the animal. In the survive-and-advance, tournament-style format, both men knew they needed to pull out all stops if they hoped to be in Saturday’s championship.
“This format definitely makes you work for it,” Call said. “Coming back this way was tough, but when you fought your way back, you feel like you’ve accomplished something.”
He did, and he has one more chance to prove himself against eight more of the best bullfighters in the sport.
Courtesy of twisTEDrodeo.com