GET SOCIAL 
SHOP NOW AT:
WRANGLER.COM

World Finals Rewind: Barbosa’s Historic Ride on Chiseled

By: Justin Felisko

PUEBLO, Colo. – Rubens Barbosa walked into the locker room at T-Mobile Arena to one of the biggest ovations ever in the PBR’s four-year run at the state-of-the-art arena on the Las Vegas Strip.

T-Mobile Arena has played host to the PBR’s marquee World Finals since it opened in 2016, and it has witnessed a slew of memorable and historic moments already in its brief PBR history.

This locker room is the same one in which riders such as Cooper Davis, Jess Lockwood and Kaique Pacheco have celebrated their World Championships in the past four years. Frustrations have boiled over in this room as well. Vulgarity-laced tirades, chairs knocked over and bull ropes flung into walls are customary.

One scene that will forever remain locked in Barbosa’s memory, though, will be the moment after the 36-year old entered the locker room last year following one of the greatest rides in PBR history.

Barbosa had ridden Chiseled for 95.75 points during Round 4 of the 2019 PBR World Finals, and the celebration of his fellow riders on the back of the bucking chutes boiled over into the locker room well after he had reached the 8-second mark.

“It is very important, because for a long time I don’t have a big score like that, and my high score in the PBR was a 92 in 2011 when I rode for first place at the World Finals,” Barbosa said. “Eight years ago. I am so glad to be marked this high score. It is important for me. For my career.

“He come and spin like fast and high, and I can see everything. I just waited for it. J.W. Hart tell me before the ride, ride long. Ride long. I think about that. I ride for 10 seconds.

“This is my best ride.”

 
Barbosa disembarked Chiseled inside the arena with three cowboy hats tossed onto the dirt, and the U.S. Border Patrol bullfighters then hugged him. He next proceeded to take a knee, and point to the sky.

“Obrigado,” – thank you – he said.

The ride is the fourth-highest score in PBR World Finals history, and the highest since Chris Shivers rode Dillinger for 96.5 points in 2001. Only 10 rides in PBR history have ever been scored higher on the premier series.

Barbosa was 36 years old at the time of his ride, and his score is the highest by someone 36 years or older.

Michael Gaffney was 34 when he rode Little Yellow Jacket for a PBR-record-tying 96.5 points in Nampa, Idaho, in 2004.

Hart said on CBS Sports Network prior to the ride that he was confident in Barbosa’s chances.

“I never once doubted his heart or his skills,” Hart said. “Sometimes we wonder about age and the reaction time sometimes when we start getting older. This is a matchup. If I had to pick Rubens Barbosa one bull out of this whole Finals, this would be him, just because Rubens is bound to get leaned back, and he likes to the right. This bull is not going to break over and kick, so Rubens is going to be able to fairly lean back all he wants to on this one and go at him. Every time we have seen this bull ridden, we have not seen anything under 91 points, and I think he is going to be pushing for 92 points.”

2019 world title contender Jose Vitor Leme was in the locker room during Barbosa’s ride, and he welcomed Barbosa with a warm hug outside before he was mobbed by his fellow riders inside.

“It is awesome. It is incredible,” Leme said afterwards. “I never see a bull ride like that, in person with my own eyes. It is so many points. It was a great bull ride. It was perfect today. The bull was perfect. I am happy for him. I am happy for Rubens. He is a good friend to me. We are real close. I am very happy for him too, and he deserves it.”

Leme’s pursuit of the 2019 World Championship will be replayed on Sunday with CBS national television (1:30 p.m. ET), as well as CBS Sports Network (11:30 a.m. ET), airing highlights from his world title battle against two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood.

Leme said on his way to the bucking chutes that night in Vegas that seeing Barbosa’s ride only fired him up that much more in Round 4. He would go on to ride Bootdaddy.com for 89.75 points.

“When you see rides like this, you want to ride like him too,” Leme said. “It is awesome.”

Lockwood, meanwhile, previously rode Chiseled for 93 points in Springfield, Missouri.

PBR Director of Livestock Cody Lambert said during the Finals last year that Barbosa’s ride ranks right up there with the best in history.

“I thought they got the score right, and he is right up there with them. It was a great ride,” Lambert said inside T-Mobile Arena. “There are some great bucking bulls that have perfect timing, and they are desirable for those great bull riders. That is one of them right there. Everybody thought he was unrideable until Jess rode him in Springfield. Then Cooper (Davis) rode him. Then Eduardo (Aparecido) rode him. Now Rubens rode him, and he is not bucking any different.

“All of those good bull riders know they are going to want to draw him.”

Chiseled won the 2019 ABBI Classic championship at the World Finals, and he has become a world title contender in 2020.

In three outs on the 2020 Unleash The Beast, Chiseled is 3-0 with an average bull score of 45.83. The bovine has bucked off Ezekiel Mitchell (4.63 seconds/46.5 points), Brady Sims (2.37 seconds/45.75 points) and Keyshawn Whitehorse (2.33 seconds/45.25 points).

Here is the 2020 YETI World Champion Bull standings with the PBR currently on hiatus because of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak worldwide:

1. Chiseled (45.83; 3 outs)
2. Smooth Operator (45.70; 5 outs)
3. Air Support (45.69; 4 outs)
4. Hocus Pocus (45.35; 5 outs)
*Bulls need eight outs in the regular season to become eligible for the 2020 YETI World Championship

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

© 2020 PBR Inc. All rights reserved.

Related Content