Palermo: ‘This is going to be my World Champion buckle that I don’t have’
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – Three-time PBR World Finals event winner Robson Palermo was taking his son, Mateus, to a soccer game in Dallas on July 3 when he saw he had an incoming call from PBR co-founder Cody Lambert.
Palermo was unsure of what Lambert might be calling about, and the last thing on his mind was an invitation to become the 48th inductee into the PBR’s Ring of Honor.
Palermo, who retired in 2018, believed he was still years away from joining the elite group inside the PBR’s Hall of Fame.
“Oh yeah, I was surprised,” Palermo told PBR.com. “I said, ‘Oh shoot. This is awesome.’ This is going to be my World Champion buckle that I don’t have. I will remember this for my entire life. I will have this ring on, and it will represent my awesome career.”
Palermo is one of the greatest bull riders to nod his head in PBR history.
The Rio Branco, Brazil, native is the only three-time PBR World Finals event winner, and he is the only back-to-back World Finals champion (2011-2012).
Palermo went 32-for-57 (56.14%) in 10 World Finals appearances and won $1,173,591.67 of his $2,590,230.82 career earnings at the PBR’s season-culminating event.
He posted 310 qualified rides in his career on the premier series, 37 for 90 or more points, and he won 13 events.
“There is no doubt that during his career, he was a Hall of Famer,” Lambert said. “He was such a humble, quiet guy that it almost worked against him. Being such a good guy, everyone already thought, ‘Oh, he is already in there.’ There is no doubt he was going to have it. That was a nice phone call. It meant a lot to me to be the guy to call him and tell him.
“He has meant a lot to this sport, and he still does.”
Palermo will officially be inducted into the Ring of Honor during the 2021 PBR Heroes & Legends Celebration on Nov. 2 at the South Point Showroom in Las Vegas. Fans unable to attend the fan event will also be able to watch the ceremony exclusively on RidePass on Pluto TV.
“Talking in front of everyone is going to be like getting on my first bull,” Palermo said with a laugh.
Many believe Palermo is one of the greatest bull riders to have never won a World Championship.
He was a perennial world title contender from 2007-2012 before multiple shoulder surgeries three years in a row and permanent nerve damage in his riding arm forever altered his career. But he still qualified for the World Finals three more times after undergoing season-ending surgery in 2013.
The closest Palermo came to winning a World Championship was 10 years ago.
He went a career-best 46-for-77 (59.74 percent) with 10 90-point rides, five event wins, including his second World Finals event title, and nine Top-5 finishes to finish third in the world standings.
At the 2011 Finals, Palermo was initially ruled to have slapped King of Hearts around the 3.3-second mark, but an instant replay review showed that King of Hearts had touched him in the armpit instead of Palermo slapping him.
Therefore, Palermo was given a 93.25-point score and would go to win the Finals.
Palermo wound up 2,706.25 points behind Silvano Alves, who attempted 24 more bulls and posted 23 more rides than Palermo on the premier series because of injuries, in the final 2011 world standings.
“I struggled a lot with my health and stuff through those years, and I could have won the world title if I was healthy, but now I have this ring instead of the buckle I never got to win,” Palermo said. “This is really good for my kids, my family, my wife, and myself, too.”
Yet as Lambert and fellow Ring of Honor inductee Justin McBride said, it was Palermo’s personality and grace that always seemed to stand out more than even his supreme riding ability. Palermo was always willing to lend a helping hand to any of his fellow riders and was a pillar of class for the world’s leading bull riding organization.
Palermo became a United States citizen in 2019, 14 years after first stepping foot in America, and is a prime example of the American Dream coming true for one of the PBR’s Brazilian superstars.
The now-38-year-old grew up without electricity in his childhood home 30 minutes north of Rio Branco, Brazil, in Bujari, a small town in the Amazon basin where there is only one paved road.
Palermo began helping provide for his family by working with livestock at 9 years old. Five years later, he began riding mature bulls and quickly started winning events.
Palermo made the journey to the United States in late 2005 despite not knowing a lick of English, eventually making his debut in Portland, Oregon, on February 17, 2006.
Nine months later, Palermo was competing at the first of his 10 PBR World Finals appearances.
He now resides in Bullard, Texas, with his wife, Priscila, and three kids, Gabby, Mateus and Lucas, and works as a horse trainer.
“I don’t know how you can get a better Ring of Honor inductee, a better story,” McBride said. “The only three-time World Finals event winner. He has been through so many injuries and became an American citizen. It is a great American success story. That should be inspirational to any young bull rider from anywhere in the world, what he accomplished in his career. I am very proud that he is being recognized for it.”
Palermo is the third Brazilian native inducted into the Ring of Honor, joining three-time World Champion Adriano Moraes and 2008 World Champion Guilherme Marchi.
The group has inspired future generations of bull riders, many of whom are competing in the PBR today, and continues to help mentor and develop future stars of the sport.
“Everyone comes to the U.S., especially Brazilian guys, to make money and be a World Champion,” Palermo said. “When you complete that dream, it is awesome because you know you did well, and you did everything to support your family and your life. Kids everywhere have a chance to look up to someone to see they can do a sport, or anything in life, through hard work. I hope this can inspire all the younger people to come here who have a dream to be a World Champion and work hard. When you work hard to do something, you are going to have success before you retire.
“I dreamed to be a World Champion and compete in the U.S. like I did. I came here, retired, and now I have this ring. It represents everything I accomplished in my career.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Christopher Thompson/Bull Stock Media
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