The Right Stuff in Contention for YETI World Championship Bull Title
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – Reigning Stock Contractor of the Year Chad Berger has long believed he had a World Champion Bull contender in The Right Stuff, but he also noticed his bull was so rank at bucking riders off in one or two jumps that he often was not able to showcase his true talents.
This season, however, The Right Stuff has started to move up the rankings to go along with a locker room that already had the utmost respect for one of the most difficult bulls to ride in the PBR.
The Right Stuff concluded the first half of the Unleash The Beast No. 5 in the YETI World Champion Bull standings with a World Champion Bull average of 45.31 points. Berger is hopeful his bull can attempt to make a potential second-half push and challenge frontrunner Woopaa.
The 2021 YETI World Champion Bull will be the animal with the highest average bull score from their top eight regular-season outs and two outs at the PBR World Finals (Nov. 3-7 in Las Vegas).
Berger called The Right Stuff “the most underrated bull” in the PBR last month, but The Right Stuff’s buckoff record speaks highly about his degree of difficulty.
Only two riders – two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood and defending World Champion Jose Vitor Leme – have successfully ridden The Right Stuff in 40 outs at all levels of competition.
“He is finally starting to get enough credit because he has been that way for a long, long time,” PBR Director of Livestock Cody Lambert said. “You look at all the guys he has bucked off, and the only two that have ridden him ever are the best two bull riders in the PBR.
“He has a style of bucking them off in the inside and kind of down beside him. He doesn’t have a style where he is throwing guys up way in the air. He is obviously a rank bull. Now he is finally known.”
2021 World Champion Bull Standings Top 5
1. Woopaa (46.45 points on five outs)
T2. Marquis Metal Works Red Clark (45.53 points on eight best outs)
T2. Ridin Solo (45.53 points on eight best outs)
4. Marquis Metal Works Coriolis Effect (45.38 points on eight best outs)
5. The Right Stuff (45.31 points on eight best outs)
“Woopaa has a cool style and is definitely easier to ride than a couple other bulls, but he is also worth more points because of the criteria they are scored on – their buck, kick, direction change, intensity, and degree of difficulty,” Lambert said. “The degree of difficulty is one category where The Right Stuff might beat Woopaa. But that is only one category. The other categories, Woopaa’s got him. Degree of difficulty is almost an intangible category. Intensity as well. Intensity could be based on speed, but also on how hard that bull is trying to throw him off. He changes his timing, he changes his rhythm, he changes his kick, he changes something. That could be intensity, but intensity and degree of difficulty really overlap on the judging categories.
“The Right Stuff is definitely in there. If Woopaa slips up, The Right Stuff could beat him like Joao (Ricardo Vieira) or Cooper (Davis) or Kaique (Pacheco) could beat Jose if he slips up. But if he does what he has been doing, nobody can beat him. If Jose keeps doing what he is doing, nobody can beat him.”
The Right Stuff is 12-1 this season on the Unleash The Beast with an average bull score of 44.85 points.
That one rider who reached 8 seconds was none other than Leme. The bovine athlete and world No. 1 bull rider will square off Friday night in a $10,000 bonus matchup at the Dakota Community Bank & Trust PBR Bull Riding Challenge.
Fans can watch all the action from Bismarck exclusively on RidePass beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET on Friday and Saturday.
Leme put an end to The Right Stuff’s consecutive buckoff streak of 25 in a row on the premier series, and 26 overall, by riding the Chad Berger bovine athlete for 89.5 points during the championship round of the PBR Nampa Invitational on April 24.
The Right Stuff previously had bucked Leme off on two occasions. The 6-year-old bull first disposed of Leme on February 1, 2019, in 6.87 seconds in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Right Stuff then bucked Leme off in Kansas City, Missouri, last season in 6.24 seconds, breaking three of Leme’s ribs in the process.
Leme would have easily been north of 90 points inside the Ford Idaho Center if not for the final two seconds of his qualified ride. The 24-year-old was nearly bucked off just past six seconds but somehow held onto his bull rope while hanging off the side of The Right Stuff until the 8-second mark.
This weekend will also be an opportunity for Leme to extend his lead in the 2021 World Championship race. Bismarck is a TPD Major event, meaning there are Velocity Tour-level world points up for grabs.
Leme leads No. 2 Kaique Pacheco by a mere 18.5 points.
The Unleash The Beast is on its summer break and will resume on July 26-27 with Last Cowboy Standing at Cheyenne Frontier Days.
Three of the Top-5 riders in the world are competing in Bismarck – No. 1 Leme, No. 4 Dener Barbosa and No. 5 Joao Ricardo Vieira.
Other riders tentatively slated to compete in Bismarck include No. 11 Junior Patrik Souza, No. 14 Keyshawn Whitehorse, No. 16 Chase Dougherty, No. 18 Joao Henrique Lucas, No. 21 Jesse Petri, No. 27 Marcelo Procopio Pereira, No. 28 Mason Taylor, No. 29 Ezekiel Mitchell, No. 32 Claudio Montanha Jr. and No. 36 Dalton Kasel.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
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