ARLINGTON, Texas (February 18, 2010) - If there’s one professional bull rider in the world who believes he has the mettle to become the first Iron Cowboy, it would be J.B. Mauney.
The No. 1 ranked rider in the world standings lives for moments like this.
After years of planning, the Iron Cowboy Invitational – a tournament-style bracket matching 24 of the best riders in the world in a series of head-to-head battles – will finally take place in Arlington, Texas.
The winner will earn $260,000.
“Nobody has gotten on these rank of bulls – that many of them – in one day, ever before,” Mauney said. “You’re going to have to have the guts to do it.”
The Mooresville, N.C., native not only has the guts to show up, but the desire to accomplish what no one else has had the opportunity to do.
“I’m there for one reason, and that’s to win,” he said last weekend in Oklahoma City. “I’m there to ride every bull I get on and, you know, I like getting on that rank of bull and that many of them, because it fires me up when you know that you have a bull that you can be 92 or 93 on every time.”
To this point in his career, a world title has eluded Mauney. But he’s amassed an impressive list of credentials, considering he only turned 23 last month.
In four full seasons on the Built Ford Tough Series, he’s won the Rookie of the Year title and twice claimed the Challenger Tour (now Touring Pro Division) championship. He won last year’s World Finals event by becoming the first man to cover all eight bulls in Las Vegas. After eight events this year, he’s in first place in the world standings, and is covering 69 percent of his bulls, which is nearly 10 points higher than his career average of 59.66 percent.
Mauney admits it’s going to take a lot of resiliency to work through the Iron Cowboy bracket.
“You’re going to have to be tough,” Mauney said. “It’s going to wear a guy out, and by the end of the day we’re probably going to be ready to go home.”
If he has but one advantage, it would be that he’s the only rider to have ever made it to the whistle on Code Blue.
It was an ugly ride, where he was so out of position by the time it was over that he was upside down and nearly underneath the bull. But in a competition like this, any advantage could be the one catalyst to inspire a victory.
“J.B. did hang on at New York, and he was out of control,” recalled PBR Livestock Director Cody Lambert, “but he didn’t let go, and that kind of guts and that kind of determination will win $260,000 this Saturday.”
NEWS and NOTES
PBR NOW on RFD-TV: Hosted by J.W. Hart and Justin McBride, “PBR NOW” is a weekly live one-hour TV series that airs every Thursday on RFD-TV at 10 p.m. ET. Fans are encouraged to call in with questions at 866-547-9696, or email them to pbr@rfdtv.com.
This week, in addition to the Thursday night broadcast, PBR NOW is televising a special one-hour edition Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. The guys will be broadcasting live from their RFD stage located in the Fan Zone area outside of Cowboys Stadium, and fans are encouraged to come by for the taping.
Event Center: Follow all the action from Cowboys Stadium, by logging on to www.pbr.com and entering the “Event Center,” which is accessible from the tab located at the top of the main Web page. The Event Center provides live scoring, live blogging and event-related Podcasts and interviews.
