Dennis The Menace Takes the Lead for YETI Bull of the Finals; Chiseled Slightly Closes the Gap in World Champion Bull Race
By: Justin Felisko
LAS VEGAS – Could $25,000 make up for all the damage Dennis The Menace used to cause on the ranch in Stephenville, Texas?
“When they buck that hard, they can go ahead and wreck everything out,” Steve Viducic said Thursday night at the PBR World Finals.
Dennis The Menace earned his name because, as a calf, he would notoriously destroy everything around him on the ranch or in the bullpens.
However, the only wrecking the now 4-year-old bovine was doing in Round 2 at T-Mobile Arena was manhandling 2020 PBR World Finals event winner Boudreaux Campbell in 2.31 seconds for a monstrous 47.25-point bull score.
“I knew he had it in him, this open arena being like this,” Vidcucic said. “When he is around the right, sometimes those smaller coliseums and those corners being right there can slow him, but I thought he would really buck out of here.”
Dennis The Menace took one massive jump out of the bucking chutes before whipping Campbell immediately off his back with relative ease to make himself the potential favorite to win the 2021 PBR Bull of the Finals title.
The Bull of the Finals goes to the bovine with the highest combined score on two outs at the World Finals and pays out $25,000.
“That was the goal coming in here,” Viducic said. “I knew he had a legitimate shot coming into it, and putting up that score tonight only convinces me more.”
Round 2 of the PBR World Finals is often referred to as the Rank Pen, and Thursday did not disappoint.
Four other bulls produced bull scores of 46 points or higher – Mezcal (46.5 points), Moonlight Party (46.5 points) and Chiseled (46 points).
Mezcal bucked off Thiago Salgado in 1.92 seconds.
“He did good, and I am proud of him,” Jeremy Walker of Paradigm Bull Company said. “He is always one to see if he is in shape or not. He always looks fat and whatnot, but he feels good and bucks good. I am happy with him.”
Moonlight Party bucked off Cooper Davis in 3.23 seconds but was called for a foul in a still impressive demonstration of brute strength in only his second out on the Unleash The Beast this year.
Meanwhile, Dennis The Menace and Mezcal may be evolving into two of the more difficult bulls to conquer in the PBR.
Dennis The Menace is now 7-0 on the Unleash The Beast and 11-0 at all levels, while Mezcal is 11-0 on the Unleash The Beast and 15-0 at all levels of competition.
“We are going to have some fun with him,” Viducic said of Dennis The Menace. “He is just a 4-year-old, and it is hard to come across them good ones like him. I am going to hang onto him and see what I can do with him. I talked to Cooper (Davis) and other guys that have been on him, and they all say he is just very, very, strong.”
Mezcal moved up to third in the YETI World Champion Bull standings (45.86 points). However, he is still 0.86 points behind No. 1 Woopaa, who earned a season-low 45 points for bucking off Daylon Swearingen in 3 seconds when he surprisingly turned out to the right instead of his usual left routine.
Walker knows the YETI World Champion Bull title is a pipe dream this year, but he certainly has his eyes on the Bull of the Finals title.
“That is all Woopaa has left for us to after and shoot for,” Walker said with a laugh.
Chiseled has a slim outside shot at the world title if Woopaa were to stub his toe on Championship Sunday.
The 6-year-old bucked off Rookie of the Year leader Junior Patrik Souza in 4.91 seconds to increase his World Champion Bull average to 46.33 points. Chiseled is 0.39 points behind Woopaa, and he will need to have a bull score that is 3.75 points higher than Woopaa’s on Sunday to jump him in the world standings.
“I needed about a 55 tonight, but I will have to take a 46,” H.D. Page said with a laugh. “We probably need him to not show up on Sunday. Maybe they can forget to bring him over here.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
© 2021 PBR Inc. All rights reserved.