Palermo Will Remember his Ring of Honor Induction for his Entire Life
By: Justin Felisko
LAS VEGAS – Robson Palermo was so proud to have moved to Texas in 2005 to begin his PBR career and chase his American dream with his future wife, Priscila, by his side.
The Palermos were going to be living in College Station, Texas, with Priscila enrolled at Texas A&M University.
Robson did not know any English when he first arrived in the United States, and translation apps were still years away. Therefore, Robson did a lot of his learning on the fly.
Palermo explained on Tuesday night during the PBR Heroes & Legends Celebration that one lesson he did not expect to learn early on in his career was the rivalry between Texas A&M and the University of Texas.
Palermo had returned home from a PBR event when he landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and saw a bright orange Texas Longhorns hat and t-shirt.
“To me, I was moving to Texas, and to see those big horns was great, so I bought me a Longhorn hat,” he said.
What Palermo did not know was that wearing Texas Longhorns gear was a big no-no in College Station. He was taking the trash out one day from his apartment when a series of people in the neighborhood began cussing him out.
However, Palermo did not understand any English, so he kept smiling and giving the thumbs-up sign and said ‘yes!’
“What are they saying?” Palermo recalled thinking to himself. “It was my first year riding a the PBR, and I said, ‘Well, they must have saw me on the TV,’ and I come back home I told my wife.”
Priscila quickly told Robson, “Oh my gosh. You can’t do that!”
Robson, though, was actually likely onto something 15 years ago.
Eventually, millions of people would know who Robson Palermo was – and not because of an accidental college football hat. Instead, Palermo became one of the PBR’s greatest bull riders of all time and a true fan favorite.
Palermo’s legacy will forever be engrained in PBR history now that he has been inducted into the PBR Ring of Honor as the sport’s 48th inductee and only the third Brazilian native to join the illustrious group of men.
“Everything I did in life in bull riding was to be the best one,” Palermo said. “Today, I am the best one. This ring is going to be the World Champion buckle I never had the chance to win. I will wear this ring like the buckle I never won. I will remember this for my entire life.”
Palermo is the only three-time PBR World Finals event winner, and he is the only back-to-back World Finals champion (2011-2012).
“To win the PBR World Finals three times, there is not a harder thing in the world to win than that event,” nine-time PBR World Champion Ty Murray, who inducted Palermo into the Ring of Honor, said. “It is all the rankest bulls and all the best guys. It goes so much further than how great he rode and that he holds that record.
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.
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.
He would eventually retire in 2018.
“I retired because I couldn’t ride anymore,” Palermo said. “My shoulder, my back, my neck and everything. If not, I would be riding bulls here, competing with these young guys. But I can’t. I had to walk away, and I have a great life with my family.
“I am a cowboy working on a ranch and with horses. I am giving the great life for my kids going to school to learn stuff here. I am so happy to be an American, too.”
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.
“The Ring of Honor, this is our Mount Everest, and this is the highest award in bull riding,” Murray said. “It doesn’t come from just being a good rider; it comes from being somebody that is going to have an impact on the sport for a long, long time, that did as much for the sport outside of the arena that he did on the inside. Robson Palermo, this is a guy who was first-class in everything he ever did. He was a leader in the locker room, and he was a guy all the other guys looked up to.
“I don’t think you will find one person that doesn’t like Robson Palermo. He was always so humble and always so gracious, and him and I have become really good friends over the years, and I am so proud to be inducting him into this. I don’t think there is a more deserving guy. I think his record can stand for no telling how long. It takes more than just being a good bull rider to win the Finals and to win it three times. He had everything. He had great style, strength and he worked tirelessly at it. This guy is a real cowboy. Everything he has done his whole life revolves around being a cowboy to this day.”
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.
“Fifteen years ago, I come here to ride bulls,” Palermo said. “At that time, we didn’t have a bunch of Brazilians here like now. Now they have about 200 Brazilians riding in the PBR. That time they just had Paulo (Crimber), Adriano (Moraes), Ednei (Caminhas), Guilherme (Marchi) and a couple other guys.
“The first time I come, I was so nervous because I was from Brazil. I come from a very small town in Brazil. Rio Branco is a little town in Brazil close to the Amazon. To come here to the big lights, Las Vegas, the U.S. and everything was a big change in my life.”
Palermo retired from the sport in 2018 and now resides in Bullard, Texas, with Priscila and three kids, Gabby, Mateus and Lucas, and works as a horse trainer.
The 38-year-old was happy to have his family with him in Las Vegas to cherish the special night.
“This ring is everything in my life and my family, my kids to see me do this,” Palermo said. “Lucas, my young one, he didn’t see me ride bulls. My old kids, they saw. Now Lucas see me come here and get this ring, and watch the video and see what I did in my career. It is awesome. I want to say thank you to everybody to do this.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
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