PUEBLO, Colo. – From the moment Ezekiel Mitchell made it onto the premier series in 2019, the now-23-year-old has made a habit of fearlessly selecting the rankest bulls time and time again.
On Saturday afternoon, Mitchell finally slayed a dragon he has had his eyes on these past three years when he rode two-time YETI World Champion Smooth Operator for a career-high 93 points in Arcadia, Florida.
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Smooth Operator had previously bucked Mitchell off on two different occasions, and Mitchell had never even made it past 3.7 seconds on Chad Berger’s bovine superstar before.
In fact, this weekend is Mitchell’s first qualified ride on a World Champion Bull in his career as he is 0-3 against SweetPro’s Bruiser.
Mitchell will now turn his focus toward building off that ride when the Unleash The Beast: American Roots Edition heads to Okeechobee, Florida, for the PBR Coors Banquet Invitational on Saturday and Sunday.
Here are some other noteworthy stats from this past weekend, which also featured the PBR reverting its Unleash The Beast events back to the 2020 event format.
10: Smooth Operator has now been ridden 10 times by seven different riders on the premier series in 94 outs. The other six riders besides Mitchell: Jose Vitor Leme, Cooper Davis, Cody Teel, Mason Lowe, Guilherme Marchi and Brennon Eldred.
3: New world No. 1 Junior Patrik Souza has begun the 2021 season 4-for-6 through the first two events of the year after going only 7-for-27 during his 2020 rookie season. Souza’s 88.25-point ride on Homegrown at the season-opener was a career-high as well.
6: 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis won six rounds on the Unleash The Beast last season, third-most in the league behind Leme (16) and Jess Lockwood (10). He missed five months because of a broken neck last season, though, so the sky is the limit for what he may be able to do this season. Davis (89 points on Buckin’ For Cash) tied for the Round 2 win with Dener Barbosa (89 points on Sunny) and could be the top rider capable of consistently winning rounds these next few weeks with Lockwood and Leme out with injuries.
15: Career win No. 15 has Kaique Pacheco up to No. 3 in the world standings, and that is a position he is very comfortable in. Take away Pacheco’s injury-shortened 2019 campaign, and the 2018 World Champion has finished in the Top 6 of the world standings in five of six seasons on the premier series. Pacheco is now a perfect 2-for-2 aboard Marquis Metal Works Bill The Butcher after riding him for 89.75 points in the championship round Sunday.
5: It has been five years since two Brazilian natives won the first two premier series events of the season. In 2016, Wallace de Oliveira (Chicago) and Paulo Lima (New York) won the first two tour stops. Mauricio Moreira and Pacheco have won the first two 2021 events.
89.75: Brennon Eldred’s 89.75-point ride on @PBR on TikTok to win Round 1 is the second-highest of his PBR career. Eldred won three rounds last season on the Unleash The Beast.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media