ARLINGTON, Texas - Bushwacker proved he's still every bit as good as he was.

The reigning World Champion Bull hadn't bucked since the World Finals in late October, recovering from surgery in early January to remove bone chips from both hind legs.

Saturday night he was marked 46 points in the final round of the Dickies® Iron Cowboy III after bucking off event-winner J.B. Mauney at 7.22 seconds - the longest he's been ridden since being covered at the World Finals in 2009.

Bushwacker is in fine form after leg surgery, tossing J.B. Mauney just before the whistle in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday.

"Coming back after surgery, I thought it was real good," said Julio Moreno, who co-owns Bushwacker with Richard Oliveira. "I was hoping J.B. would ride him. It was good. He really shined, I thought.

"Now I know he still has it. That was my concern. Anybody that has surgery … what's going to happen next? Well, he did perform."

Moreno and Kent Cox, who hauls and handles Bushwacker from his ranch in Dublin, Texas, confirmed that for the foreseeable future, they will not buck Bushwacker in back-to-back weeks.

'Coming back after surgery, I thought it was real good. ...  He really shined, I thought. Now I know he still has it.'

They're looking at Albuquerque, N.M., in late March as his next potential appearance.

"Then we'll go to Pueblo (Colo., in mid-May)," Moreno said.

Bushwacker, who currently weighs 1,737 pounds, was a little heavier than they would have liked.

Cox plans to keep working him out on a daily basis to take a little more weight off of before his next trip.

"We're going to take our time with him," Moreno said. "We're not going to really rush him."

In their first head-to-head matchup of 2012, Bushwacker outscored his top rival Asteroid, who was marked 45.5 points after bucking off Austin Meier at the 4-second mark in the final round.

Moreno thought they might haul Bushwacker to eight Built Ford Tough Series events, "and see what happens from there. That's all we can do."

NO. 1 WITH A BULLET: "I'm very relaxed, I feel comfortable here and, man, I'm having a (heck) of a time," said J.B. Mauney, as he made his way through a throng of well-wishers that included his parents Tim and Lynne, and his brother-in-law Shane Proctor.

J.B. Mauney celebrates the wn in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday.

But after winning his second BFTS event of 2012 and extending his lead atop the world standings to a season-high 495.75 points, he again credited the one person most important to him - his daughter Bella - as the reason for his reemergence as the top title contender.

"I have that little girl at home and she has me calmed down, pretty much," he said. "I stay around the house, I don't go out all the time anymore, and I guess I grew up a little bit. It's showing up in my riding."

Mauney gutted his way through what was arguably the most difficult section of the bracket-style format.

After advancing with an 86.5-point ride on White Velvet, he matched up with Perfect Poison, Shepherd Hills Tested and Bushwacker in successive rounds before earning a chance to win an additional $50,000 on Buckey.

"It didn't really go like I wanted it to," he admitted. "I ended up winning the deal, but I would have liked to have rode every bull I got on. You know, I rode Bushwacker right to the whistle and he still got me again. I ended up winning and I couldn't ask for anything more, but I wish I would have done it in a little better fashion."

It was the sixth time he's matched up with the reigning World Champion Bull.

This time he made it 7.22 seconds, but in four of his previous five attempts, he never made it past the halfway point.

"That bull got to whipping so fast tonight," Mauney explained. "I was moving and going, and if I could have kept my free arm slowed down, I would have been okay. I just got to whipping too much, and he brought me to the outside and slung me pretty hard on my head."

Coming off what was statistically the worst season of his seven-year career - he still managed to finish ranked seventh in the world - Mauney is off to one of the best starts he's had since making his debut in 2006.

'I couldn't ask for anything more, Everything is going great for me right now.'

He's the only rider to avoid going 0-for-the-weekend in the first nine BFTS events of the season, and has finished in the Top 10 in six of those nine events, including the past five. In four of those five events he's been in the Top 5, including his earlier win in Baltimore.

He's ridden 18 of 28 bulls, which is more qualified rides than any other rider, and his 64.29 percent riding average is more than 8 percent higher than his career average of 55.93, and more than 20 percent higher than his 2011 average.

"I couldn't ask for anything more," Mauney said. "Everything is going great for me right now."

VALIANT EFFORT: After advancing to the final round and earning a matchup with Asteroid, Meier got a piece of advice from his father Rex: "Just stay loose on him, and not to clamp, because he'll go either way now."

In recent weeks, Asteroid has shown a willingness and ability to go left or right. The elder Meier, who works with Circle T Ranch and drives the truck that hauls Asteroid, added, "He's got a little roll to him it looks like, and to stay square in the middle to go right or left, you know, he's got a little roll to him, so he gets you leaning and disappears from you."

Austin Meier lasts 4 seconds on Asteroid in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday.

Austin finished second in this year's Iron Cowboy III.

"Oh shoot, it's bull riding," said the younger Meier afterward. "J.B. and I both put our hearts out on the line. I'm just glad to be healthy, and will be ready for next week."

It was a huge difference from last year, when Meier collapsed out of exhaustion and could barely stand on his own by the end of one of the most grueling formats in professional bull riding.

"A big part of it is my conditioning I've done in the off-season getting here," said Meier, who added he's "stronger, faster, healthier than I was last year.

"Last year, my very first bull absolutely wrecked me out and really kind of just did it in for me. This year, even though it looked like I got wrecked out bad, it'll be a little bit sore, but that was just a bump in the road. That wasn't nothing, and I was able to still go on."

Austin Meier, using both his trademark power and a renewed focus on technique, goes 4 seconds on championship-contender Asteroid in Arlington, Texas on Saturday.

Meier said that other than Mulligan Man, whom he stayed on for 5.06 seconds to advance to the final round, the draw fit his riding style, and he had a chance to come through the elimination process with a win.

He did become the first rider in 22 attempts to cover Rango. His 91-point-effort was the high-marked score of the event.

FEELING A DRAFT: The first Backseat Buckers auction and draft, which was held Saturday afternoon at Cowboys Stadium, was a resounding success. The contractors bid a total of $1.4 million in purchasing the 100 ABBI futurity bulls who will compete at five events for $500,000 in prize money.

Gary Long bid $98,000 for the No. 1 pick, and received a new Ford pickup for the winning bid, as did Boyd & Floyd Bucking Bulls, when Long selected No. 119, who was raised on their ranch outside Stephenville, Texas.

The first 10 draft bids raised nearly $500,000 and surpassed $1 million with the 46th.

"If you have the No. 1 pick, you go right to the bull you want," Long said, "and you don't have to say, 'Oh (darn), I should have gone a little higher with the my bid.' And then you throw in a truck. What more?

"I need one. Well, my wife needs one - a nice clean one."

'If you have the No. 1 pick, you go right to the bull you want, and you don't have to say, "Oh (darn), I should have gone a little higher with the my bid." And then you throw in a truck. What more?

Long said he didn't have a ceiling when it came to bidding for the first pick. He joked that "we're talking about estate planning. I'm at that point in my life. It's grandkid money. They got a little less money now coming their way."

Each of the participating contractors had an opportunity to watch videos for every available bull. Long said he spent a lot of time viewing each video and assembling a list of bulls he was interested in. He also consulted with Monty Samford and Kent Cox in ranking the top prospective 2-year-old bulls.

Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway was the first of several celebrity contracts to submit a winning bid. He got the ninth overall pick, followed by his close friend Wayne Gretzky, who is widely regarded as the greatest hockey player of all-time, with the 11th pick. Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, who once hit three homeruns in a single World Series game for the New York Yankees, bid for the 13th overall pick.

Other celebrities included the Boomer Esiason Foundation, Chad Ochocinco and Bear Pascoe, a tight end from the Super Bowl winning New York Giants.

JUST IN TIME: "I was pretty flustered I wasn't going to get to come," said Harve Stewart, who was born and raised in nearby Stephenville. He originally missed the cut for the 24-man draw in Arlington, but that all changed on Thursday when Stewart got what he called "the call."

Upon returning from a trip to Guatemala, Mike Lee had his injured right knee reexamined, and it was determined he had torn the PCL. He'll miss 12 to 14 weeks.

Stewart said he was talking with Colby Yates, who won last year's Iron Cowboy event, and the Fort Worth native told him he too was a late alternate. This was Stewart's first time competing at Cowboys Stadium.

"I was on vacation," he joked, "and now I'm here to work."

ALL OUT: Renato Nunes dispelled any notion that the second rider in each of the Iron Cowboy matchups would even consider conserving energy. The 2010 World Champion said he was not worried about the time of the riders he faced. "I'm focused on making a ride," he said. "If I make a score, then I get points (toward) winning the world title." Nunes made it to the Elite 8 round before being eliminated by Marco Eguche.

Renato Nunes made it to the Elite 8 in Arlington on Saturday.

IN ATTENDANCE: McKennon Wimberly, who has yet to see the dentist after being hit in jaw Monday at a local practice pen, and Proctor were among some of the top bull riders not competing in the Iron Cowboy who were on hand for the event.

Dakota Beck and last week's event winner Chase Outlaw were also in Arlington. Outlaw won his first BFTS event at Reliant Stadium in Houston, but was stepped on after dismounting his final bull. He said he was sore early in the week and "could hardly move," but on Thursday he woke up "and felt fine."

THE PARTY NEVER ENDS: Luke Snyder, the reigning Last Cowboy Standing, is one of more than a dozen PBR riders, bullfighters and staffers who will be in Thackerville, Okla., for tonight's Kid Rock concert at the WinStar World Casino. Snyder and Shorty Gorham will be driving a Ford Super Duty north to Detroit for this year's Last Cowboy Standing Saturday at Ford Field, but not before joining in-arena announcer Brandon Bates and others for the concert.

WATCH LAST COWBOY STANDING next Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.