LAS VEGAS ― A few hours before the final day of the Last Cowboy Standing, nine-time World Champion Ty Murray asked Silvano Alves if he was going to win the $100,000 event.

Alves smiled and shook his head yes.

He did more than win the Last Cowboy Standing, on Saturday night, in Las Vegas. In the minds of many he solidified himself as the odds-on favorite to win an unprecedented third consecutive world title when the season concludes back in Vegas this coming October.

"He's proven for the last three years in a row that he's the best guy."

One would be hard-pressed to convince Murray otherwise and the next morning, fellow PBR co-founder Cody Lambert said the 25-year-old Brazilian is the best professional bull rider in the world.

Two former World Champions - Michael Gaffney and Justin McBride - agreed.

"He was the best bull rider again tonight," said McBride, "and that ride on Smackdown that was a really good ride. For a right-handed guy that bull is no day off.

Gaffney added, "That's the first time a right-handed guy has ridden that bull."

Alves claimed the Last Cowboy Standing moniker for the second straight year with a 92.5-point effort in the fourth round after coming down off of David's Dream a round earlier, when many predicted he had a good chance to win.

However, all seven riders in Round 3 ― L.J. Jenkins, Alves, Nathan Schaper, Valdiron de Oliveira, Aaron Roy, Cody Nance and Joao Ricardo Vieira ― bucked off, so all seven were brought back for another round and that's when Alves took the competition to task.

He's the No. 1 ranked rider in the world for a reason.

He's ridden five more bulls than any other rider this year and his 51.72 percent average is the third best among the top contenders for this year's title.

The Vegas event was his second event win of 2013 and, more importantly, going into the summer break he extended his lead atop the standings to 1,319.91 points over Marcho Eguchi, while Shane Proctor slipped to third and trails by 1,358.20 points.

"What it all boils down to is staying on your bulls," said McBride, when asked about Alves' success in the progressive style format, "and he's proven for the last three years in a row that he's the best guy at that."

"He's going to ride most of them, is what I think," Gaffney said. "If you keep running them underneath him he's going to ride a majority of them. I think, he's been a little hit and miss lately, from what I hear."

That's not the case anymore.

In 17 Built Ford Tough Series events, Alves has recorded nine Top 10 finishes of which seven have been in the Top 5, including a pair of wins in Fresno, Calif., and now Las Vegas.

In the past three events, he's been in the final round competing for the event win. He finished seventh in Des Moines, Iowa, and third in Boise, Idaho, prior to his crowd-rousing victory at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

"For him, he's been off," said McBride, referring to the rare subpar 0-for-the-weekend performance he had in Louisville, Ky., "but the last couple of weeks you're starting to see-"

"A resurgence, kind of," said Gaffney, finishing McBride's thought.

BUSHWACKER SOLID AGAIN: Valdiron de Oliveira looked as though he was in position ― and perfect position at that ― to ride Bushwacker for an additional $80,000 Monster Energy bonus on top of what would have been $100,000 event win at the Last Cowboy Standing.

Instead, Bushwacker runs his all-time record-setting buckoff streak to 42.

"Almost, but not quite," said Kent Cox, who hauls and handles the 2011 World Champion Bull for owner Julio Moreno. "He had a good day, but not one of his best days."

Bushwacker was marked 47.25 points.

Cox said everything seemed as usual for Bushwacker, who loaded easy into the chutes and stood nicely as Oliveira readied his bull rope.

"He just didn't seem like he had the momentum leaving the chute like he normally does with that big raring kick and everything," said Cox, of Bushwacker, who needed 5.26 seconds to put Oliveira on the dirt.

Cox called it "a good wakeup for Bushwacker, as well to kind of get warmed up."

His next scheduled event is a Touring Pro Division event in Decatur, Texas.

In fact, both Bushwacker and Asteroid are expected to compete at the J.W. Hart Invitational on Saturday, June 8. It's an extraordinary commitment for the top World Champion Bull contenders to both commit to the same TPD event.

Asteroid is the defending World Champion Bull.

Both were tapped as Monster Energy bonus bulls worth an additional $80,000 each, in Las Vegas, if either or both riders were able to make the whistle.

Oliveira bucked off Bushwacker in Round 3, while Joao Ricardo Vieira bucked off Asteroid in 5.39 seconds in what was an equally exciting out. Asteroid was marked 46.75 points and the Top 2 bulls of the past three seasons were separated by only a half point.

EARLY START: It was an early morning for Cox, on Sunday, unlike a lot of the riders, who fly out on various flights at 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., the Texas-based contractor received a shipment of three bulls from Hawaii that were scheduled to arrive in Las Vegas between 2 and 3 a.m.

Bruce Gibson sent three bulls from his ranch in Hawaii that arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, on Saturday night, at 10 p.m. and where then loaded onto a cattle hauler and driven across the desert to Vegas, where Cox transferred them to his trailer for the long haul home to Dublin, Texas.

According to Cox, who visited Hawaii back in February, all three bulls are 5 years old.

Gibson sent the trio to the mainland for Cox to work with and he'll either buy them or seek out another potential buyer. Back in February, Cox and Gibson bucked a pen of bulls. Those were the three that showed the most promise, but Cox added, "We won't know until we get them over here and get them bucked a few times with some better guys on them" whether or not they're BFTS-caliber.

Gibson has sent bulls in the past.

He shipped Black Ivory in January 2011 and Cox coordinated that pick-up to coincide with the Anaheim, Calif., event. In 2010, Gibson also sent Speckled Ivory and prior to that Hawaiian Ivory among others.

INJURY UPDATES: Guilherme Marchi sustained a concussion and a bruised left thigh when hung his left spur in the flank strap then hit his head on the ground and was stepped on in Round 2, on Saturday night. Marchi said he was sore, but thankful he escaped serious injury.

Kody Lostroh sustained a left shoulder dislocation with a possible humeral head fracture when he landed on his elbow as he was thrown from his first round bull, in Las Vegas. He was initially listed as questionable, for Saturday, but did not compete and was replaced among the 25 riders for Round 2 by Emilio Resende.

Lostroh will undergo further evaluation this week to determine a course of action. He said that his left shoulder was already hindered by a lack of full-range-of-motion since his previous surgery. His best guess was that it was 80 percent and worries that another surgery would further affect the shoulder.

The only other reported injuries, on Friday, were Carrson Hiatt and Matt Triplett both sustained concussions when they were thrown to the ground in the opening round.

NEW ROPE: Jory Markiss used a new bull rope, in Las Vegas, that he had custom made for him by Jared Farley, who was also competing at the Last Cowboy Standing. Markiss, who got off to great start earlier in the season said he was beginning to think he would have to admit he was "in a slump" when he discovered an issue with the handle of his old rope.

Markiss noted that instead of being solid and stiff, it was breaking over on either side of his hand. He used Ty Pozzobon's rope in Round 2 at the Idaho event, while awaiting his new rope from Farley.

He got it in time to use it Wednesday night, in Stephenville, Texas, at the weekly Buck N Duck event hosted by Boyd & Floyd Bucking Bulls. Markiss rode 4-of-5 bulls the night before heading to Vegas and said he had regained his confidence coming into the progressive style format.

UFC TRAINING: Reese Cates is not headed home or to a Touring Pro Division event. Instead the Arkansas native is flying to Sacramento, Calif., to spend a second week training with Urijah Faber and Chad Mendes. Cates and Chase Outlaw previously spent a week training the UFC fighters prior to the BFTS event in Albuquerque, N.M., event in late March.

Cates has since joined an MMA gym back home, where he trains when not competing, and said he would like to continue training with Faber, Mendes and Team Alpha Male when time permits in his schedule.

OFF TO AFRICA: For the second summer in a row, Justin McBride is taking a hunting trip to Africa.

This year, he's going to be tracking a leopard. He will spend six days hunting in Zimbabwe as opposed to 17, which is the preferred time needed for tracking and harvesting a leopard.

Because his trip will be shorter ― 10 days total with two travels there and two days back to the U.S. ― he will not ship his own gun and will instead use one that will be provided. Two reasons for that have to do with the amount of paperwork that needs to be filed and this particular trip came about just last week and also his travel itinerary has him flying through Amsterdam. According to McBride, even as checked-baggage guns are not allowed.

The two-time World Champion, who retired following the 2008 season, has made several trips to Africa and said, "I'll keep going back for the rest of my life."

THIS, THAT & THE OTHER: Eduardo Aparecido's sponsor shirts from Cooper Tires were lost in the mail, so the Brazilian rookie wore a camouflaged Cooper Tires jersey belonging to Flint Rasmussen. … L.J. Jenkins, who is dealing with a shoulder issue in which it's repeatedly come out of place, is contemplating surgery. He'll spend the next couple days analyzing the world standings before making a decision one way or another. If he feels as though he has enough points to qualify for the World Finals then he might go ahead and have Dr. Tandy Freeman perform the surgery now with the expectation that he'd return for the Finals. If not, he indicated he'll continue to compete for as long as he can with the idea he'd do it a year from now. … Last week, it was Cody Nance, who spray painted his protective helmet forest green. This week, his travel partner Mike Lee painted his baby blue with silver pain along the sides. … Marco Eguchi was one of several riders sporting the Wounded Warrior Project logo on his uniform. In-arena announcer Brandon Bates astutely pointed out, "For a young man from Brazil to be supporting our troops is worth an applause." … Celebrating sightings at Last Cowboy Standing included Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, retired UFC superstar Randy Couture and the cast of "Counting Cars" from the History Channel series featuring Count's Kustoms.

Follow Keith Ryan Cartwright on Twitter @PBR_KRC.