Howdy, my name is James Phillips. Some people refer to me as the world’s biggest rodeo fan. Whether that is true or not, I don't know, but I do love the sport of rodeo and in particularly bull riding. Rodeo Attitude asked me to share my thoughts with you about the first week of competition at the 2006 PBR World Finals, as well as my thoughts on the 2006 PBR Bucking Bull of the Year race. The Bull of the Year was announced Sunday, October 29th on FOX and the winner was the legendary Mossy Oak Mudslinger owned by Page & Teague Bucking Bulls, the reserve bull of the year honor would go to Dr. Proctor owned by Chumley / Katich. These are certainly two very deserving animal athletes. Congratulations to both stock contractors for receiving such high honors for these great athletes. In my opinion this is why I think the voting went the way it did. Mossy Oak Mudslinger was the sentimental favorite going into the voting. Not only is this bull a huge fan favorite, but he was and will always be a favorite among the bull riders as well. Why? Because they knew that nine times out of ten you would be in the 90s on this bull. Even though he is getting some age on him he still has the heart and the desire to buck resulting in a high bulls score. In all the years I have seen this bull I don't think I have seen him have a bad day and it is great to see a deserving bull like that go out on top as he will be retired after the finals this year. Even with all that in Mossy Oak Mudslinger favor it was still a very close race between him and Dr. Proctor. Dr. Proctor has had 15 outs on the PBR tour and no one is yet to last the eight seconds on his back. I think the reason for that is that this bull has so much power and so much drop that even if you do everything right he will still make you look silly. I predict this bull will be in the running for bull of the year for many years to come.
After three rounds of competition there were only six riders to cover all three bulls, LJ Jenkins, Wiley Peterson, Adriano Moraes, Rocky McDonald, Bryan Cantor and Cory Ranch . It will be a fight to the very end to see who will walk away as not only the PBR World Finals Champion but World Champion as well. Adriano Moraes is currently in forth place in the world title race and is also setting second in the average at this point. Adriano is determined to ride all eight of his bulls and he is not really concerned about the championship at this point and I think that is the right attitude to have. I look for Adriano to become the first man in PBR history to ride all eight of his bulls and possibly win the average championship and with 2500 points available that puts him in a great position to become the first man to win three PBR World Championships. On the other hand, let's not count any of the top six or seven guys out of the race yet I think it will be nearly impossible with the caliber of bulls to ride all eight but if anyone can it would be Adriano. I do think it will take at least six bulls ridden to win the average.
I also think the sleeper in this whole deal will be Wiley Peterson . Many people have not paid much attention to him at this point, but he is still in the race maybe not for the World Championship, but definitely the Finals Championship and possibly even the World Championship but all the other riders will have to make some serious mistakes.
Mike Lee has covered two bulls and has moved into number two in the world. Will this be the year that he wins his second world championship? He is certainly capable of doing that because he was basically in the same situation in 2004 when he did win it.
It is my opinion that it is Guilherme Marchi’s to win or lose. He has never been in this type of situation where he has come into the Finals leading the standings and so far I think he is letting the pressure get to him. It will remain to be seen whether or not he can keep his composure and ride like he is capable of, but if he keeps bucking off, then it is anyone’s ballgame. I can not wait till Thursday night when the action resumes from Las Vegas on VERSUS. Who will win I guess we will all just have watch and see!
