The Right Stuff Takes 25 Consecutive Premier Series Buckoffs Into Nampa 15/15 Bucking Battle Matchup
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – Reigning Stock Contractor of the Year Chad Berger is not sure when The Right Stuff’s streak will come to an end. All he knows is that it will take a high-caliber rider to solve his 6-year-old bovine.
The Right Stuff has bucked off 25 consecutive riders on the PBR premier series since two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood rode him for 91.75 points at the 2019 PBR World Finals.
“He kind of moves ahead, and when he comes out, he doesn’t really kick too high,” Berger said. “He shoots out of there and gets them sitting on their butt a little bit. Then they are out of position so that when he comes back so hard, they are just a little bit off, and it is hard for them to get back.
“He is just a rank bull and fun to watch.”
The Right Stuff’s next challenger is 2020 PBR World Finals event winner Boudreaux Campbell. The two will square off during this weekend’s 15/15 Bucking Battle at the Nampa Invitational (Sunday | CBS national television | 2 p.m. ET).
15/15 Bucking Battle Matchups
Mauricio Moreira vs. I’m Busted (14-2, premier series)
Boudreaux Campbell vs. The Right Stuff (30-1, premier series)
Derek Kolbaba vs. Joe Bananas (3-0, premier series)
Junior Patrik Souza vs. Heartbreak Kid (47-5, premier series)*
Keyshawn Whitehorse vs. WSM’s Jive Turkey (14-3, premier series)
Silvano Alves vs. Mr. Clean (13-1, premier series)
Cole Melancon vs. First Down (1-0, premier series)
Rafael Henrique dos Santos vs. Smooth Operator (87-12, premier series)*
Marco Eguchi vs. Chiseled (17-11, premier series)*
Colten Fritzlan vs. Kapt’n Krunch (4-1, premier series)
Dener Barbosa vs. War Fury (3-2, premier series)
Cooper Davis vs. Smooth Wreck (30-8, premier series)
Jose Vitor Leme vs. Top Shelf (10-3, premier series)$
Joao Ricardo Vieira vs. Good Night Robicheaux (29-3, premier series)*
Kaique Pacheco vs. HomeBru (3-1, premier series)
*Bull previously bucked off the rider
$Rider previously has ridden the bull for a qualified ride
Campbell may have gone 0-for-3 in Oklahoma City, but he did ride Oyster Bayou for 92.5 points on April 15 at the San Angelo (Texas) PRCA rodeo.
“That was a good bull,” Campbell said. “It is just another day at the office. I need to stay relaxed and not get too worked up about it.”
Campbell, of course, is excited for the opportunity to put an end to The Right Stuff’s buckoff streak.
“Oh yeah, always ready to break one,” Campbell said. “He’s just a bull with some forward movement. Just got to stay forward and go at him.”
Campbell also came through with a 95.5-point ride on No. 1 YETI World Champion Bull contender Woopaa in Kansas City, Missouri, last month.
Berger first became partners on The Right Stuff, whose sire is 661 Apollo, in February 2019.
“I had seen him as a rank bull in 2019,” Berger said. “A good bull. He has since developed his little trick. He has gotten a little older and a little smarter. He is one of my most difficult bulls. There are a few of them other ones around that don’t get rode.”
The 6-year-old bull is 30-1 on the premier series (UTB/Team Challenge), and he is already 10-0 (44.68 points per out) this season after going 15-0 in 2020. The Right Stuff is 11th in the YETI World Champion Bull standings with a 44.84 average on his eight best outs this year.
Lockwood is not competing in Nampa this weekend because of a left thigh injury, but his key, he believes, to getting past The Right Stuff in 2019 was spurring with his outside leg.
“That bull is hard to ride,” Lockwood said. “I tell everyone if they ask me about him, since I was the only one to ride him, I just say when I rode him in the Finals, and he wanted me in there, I spurred him with my outside leg, so he threw me out. By the time he wanted to throw me to the outside, I was already to the outside coming back. I was just beating him at his own game.”
The Right Stuff took down Junior Patrik Souza in 6.12 seconds in the 15/15 Bucking Battle in Oklahoma City for a 44.5-point bull score. While The Right Stuff extended his buckoff streak to 25, Souza lasted the longest of any rider since Lockwood.
“Anytime in the PBR, especially a bull like him or any short-go bull, they are matched up against the Top 15 guys of that week. So when you start bucking off 15, 20 in a row, you have to start saying there is something to this bull,” Berger concluded. “You start seeing some of those great guys bucked off, and there is a little more to him than even you think watching them buck.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
© 2021 PBR Inc. All rights reserved.