Pacheco and Davis Chip Away at the World Title Race During Round 1 in Lincoln
By: Justin Felisko
LINCOLN, Neb. – 2018 World Champion Kaique Pacheco and 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis both walked down the hallway of Pinnacle Bank Arena only a few feet apart following Round 1 of the PBR Cooper Tires Invitational.
The No. 2 and No. 3 ranked bull riders did not have too much to celebrate after ho-humming their ways to qualified rides on Saturday night. Neither rider made a massive move up the world rankings with a round win or even a Top-5 finish, but Pacheco and Davis both accomplished what they sat out to do.
Pacheco simply wanted to knock down another 8-second effort as he focuses on winning his daily battle of man vs. beast to set up what he hopes can become an ultimate comeback in the world title race come the 2021 PBR World Finals on Nov. 3-7 in Las Vegas.
The 27-year-old’s 83.75-point ride on Mongoose placed him 16th out of the 17 qualified rides in Round 1, but he still earned 8 world points to cut the deficit between himself and injured world No. 1 Jose Vitor Leme to 627 points.
“Bull by bull,” Pacheco said. “That is really important because each score counts. No matter what, you have to make points right now. We need to do this step by step. You can’t worry about what you need to do tomorrow, you just need to worry about today. Ride bull by bull like I say all the time.
“In life, you have to worry about the moment.”
Pacheco has drawn Last Chance (1-5, UTB) for Round 2 on Sunday (8 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network). Last Chance is the bull Andrew Alvidrez rode for 88 points on Saturday to split the Round 1 victory with Junior Patrik Souza.
The seventh-year veteran will look to gain more points on Leme during the UTB regular-season finale before turning his focus to the 2021 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals on Oct. 30-31 next weekend at the South Point Arena & Equestrian Center where he can gain up to 105 additional points before the World Finals.
Davis’ biggest worry heading into Lincoln was less about a World Championship, but more so how his strained right groin would hold up after he missed last weekend’s event in Manchester, New Hampshire, after injuring his groin two weeks ago in Greensboro, North Carolina, attempting to ride Hostage.
So far so good in Lincoln, Davis said after he rode Nightmare for 85.5 points to tie for ninth place in the round.
“That was about a perfect practice bull to get on coming back,” Davis said. “Something that will test you, but something that is not going to jerk on you too bad. He didn’t really beat me out of there, but I kind of sat on my butt because I thought he was going to sit back right there. I don’t know. It felt pretty dang good.”
Davis earned 10.5 world points and will head into Championship Sunday in Lincoln 778.5 points behind Leme. He has drawn Prayer Warrior (8-3, UTB) for Round 2. Prayer Warrior bucked Leonardo Lima off in 2.27 seconds in Round 1.
It will be one last chance for Davis to close the gap between himself and Leme as Davis intends to not compete at the 2021 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals.
However, Davis isn’t even thinking about how important his third win of the season would be on Sunday. He knows going 3-for-3 in Lincoln may not even result in a victory with 17 riders already having posted a qualified ride.
Davis just wants to make sure he has momentum on his side when he steps foot inside T-Mobile Arena for the World Finals in a week-and-a-half. If he is going to pull off any ‘miracle’ in the world title race, it is going to have to start and end with him winning the World Finals.
One rider can earn a maximum of 1,094 points at the World Finals – 560 for winning the event average.
“Lincoln is one of those events even if you ride three you are not going to win unless you draw the right bulls,” Davis said. “It is more about having fun this weekend, ride what you have and have momentum going into the Finals. It is not necessarily about winning or losing but getting on a roll heading into the Finals.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
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