PUEBLO, Colo. – In March of 2022, stock contractors Katie Perschbacher and Laramie Wilson were at two-time World Champion Jose Vitor Leme’s ranch in Decatur, Texas, when they were introduced to a bull rider who had arrived from Brazil earlier that day.

His name was Rafael Jose de Brito, and despite being fresh off an international flight, he decided to ride.

“He came to Jose’s and got on a bull,” Perschbacher said, “and rode the crap out of it.”

Not long after that, Perschbacher and Wilson were going to a bull sale in Texarkana, Texas, and Brito wanted to tag along. He didn’t have a car yet, so they went to Decatur to pick him up at his apartment.

“I will never forget it,” Perschbarcher said. “He was coming from the apartments, dragging a bag at 5 in the morning, and running because he wanted to go get on bulls.”

Brito got on in the ballpark of 11 bulls that day and won the bull riding.

Perschbacher was sold.

“It was just like, ‘Wow. He’s for real,’” she said.

Just over a year later, Perschbacher burst into tears in the stands of Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, when Brito was crowned the 2023 PBR World Champion.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Rafael Jose de Brito started riding calves when he was 4 or 5 and growing up in Potirendaba, Brazil.

His dad, Ricardo, was a bull rider, and Rafael always tried to follow in his footsteps. Rafael competed in his first event in Sao Joao Boa Vista when he was 15 years old.

That’s what got him going, he says, and he has simply never stopped.

“I talk to him every day,” Brito said of his father with the help of Paulo Crimber translating. “(He tells me to) just stay focused, and everything is going to work out.”

Promising Brazilian bull riders will often make the leap to the U.S. early on in their careers – Leme, for example, was 20. 2018 World Champion Kaique Pacheco was 18. 2016 PBR Brazil Champion Dener Barbosa was 22. Rookie Wingson Henrique da Silva is 23.

Brito, however, just never felt ready. Time passed, he got older, and he remained in Brazil. In fact, he competed against Leme when the two were both in Brazil. But when Leme came to the U.S., Brito stayed behind.

“I wanted to come, but I was also scared, and that just happened for a few years,” he admits.

When he finally felt ready, he was 30, he had the encouragement of his wife, and the COVID-19 pandemic was shutting down rodeos around Brazil.

“It was God’s plan, because I tried and tried before, and it just seemed to be that something always got in the way,” Brito said. “When I was 30, I got the visa and came over. It was real quick. That’s when I thought it was the right time.”

He would follow in the footsteps of close friend Joao Ricardo Vieira, who came to the U.S. in 2013 at age 28. An elder of his rookie class, Vieira won Rookie of the Year honors – Brito had the chance to succeed as an even older rookie.

But with age comes experience, and with experience comes plenty of 8-second bull rides.

“I don’t regret not coming sooner because it’s God’s plan, God’s time, and it works out in his time,” Brito said. “I’m here, and to be here now, about a year, I feel like I’ve adapted really great. I’m just thankful to God to be riding this great.

“I’m a little bit older, but I have a lot of fire to burn.”

DESTINATION: TEXAS

When Brito finally moved to the U.S., he settled in Decatur, Texas, surrounded by the large Brazilian bull riding community there.

He moved into an apartment and reconnected with bullfighter and old friend Wagner “Pessimo” Miqueline, who lived with Perschbacher and Wilson on their nearby ranch.

Brito began spending time there as well, taking advantage of the world-class practice pen – featuring the likes of Top Dollar and 2021 YETI World Champion Bull Woopaa – and helping them work bulls.

One day, Perschbacher recalls, Brito said he would return to Brazil.

“No no no, you’re doing so good! Why?” she asked.

“I don’t like the apartments,” he said.

“You can move in with us!” Perschbacher said.

So Brito moved out of his apartment and in with Perschbacher, Wilson and Pessimo.

“He’s been just a godsend to Laramie and I, him and Pessimo both,” Perschbacher said. “They work so hard, and they are so good about, no matter if it’s the bulls, the horses, anything – they care. I think that’s the coolest thing, is how much they care about Laramie and I. And they’ve got to kind of watch Woopaa’s career and watch Top Dollar’s career, which is so cool.”

“He doesn’t care what he’s given to do,” Wilson said. “Whether it’s saddling a horse, go rope a bull – he’s there for any of it. He helps me buck calves. The only thing he doesn’t like doing is building a fence and waking up early.

“Anything we ever need to be done, whether it’s riding Katie’s barrel horse, we need help bucking calves, I need a trip on Top Dollar or Woopaa – he’s been on both of them in the practice pens.”

Indeed, Brito gets on some of the best bulls in the world in the practice pen, trying his hand at Top Dollar twice.

Don’t ask if he’s successfully ridden him, though.

“We don’t need to talk about that,” Wilson joked.

Perschbacher and Wilson recently moved to Tupelo, Oklahoma, and invited Brito and Pessimo to come with them and move into their new ranch.

On moving day, Perschbacher told Brito to put his stuff in their truck.

“He said, ‘No, ma’am,’” Perschbacher said. “I’m trying to text Laramie like, ‘I don’t think he’s moving with us.’ Because these are like my brothers.”

But when she turned around, she saw Brito’s little car packed to the gills with everything he owned.

“I go to Oklahoma,” he said.

“And he moved in, and they have just been so good to us,” Perschbacher said. “They’re family.”

Even Brito’s mother considers them family.

“His mom, her and I talk back and forth, and she shared a picture we took last night and said, ‘His American family,’” Perschbacher said. “I was like, I’m crying!”

Brito moved in before the 2022 PBR Team Series started last summer. Thanks largely to Joao Ricardo Vieira’s influence with head coach Cody Lambert, Brito signed with the Texas Rattlers as a free agent.

Following a 4-for-19 showing on the Challenger Series, Brito went 6-for-20 for the Rattlers as he struggled with a hand injury. Maybe not the best numbers, but he went 3-for-3 in the regular-season finale in Glendale, Arizona, and notched a 91-point ride on Mr. Right Now in the third-place game at the PBR Team Series Championship in Las Vegas.

“I think he did better than I think some of them thought,” Perschbacher said. “He struggled, but lucky for him, we’ve got a lot of practice bulls. So Laramie was hard on him. Like, ‘You know what? We’re getting on practice bulls today. Too bad.’ And there’d be days he’d be like, ‘Nope,’ and Laramie was like, ‘You’re getting on. I don’t care. You’re getting on.’”

Wilson affectionately calls Brito a “hard-headed little shit” and says the biggest battle is keeping him convinced of his own potential.

“He’s the world’s worst critic,” Wilson said. “If he gets bucked off, he gets down on himself. I’m like, ‘Hey, let’s go to the practice pen and fix this. You got it. You’re good enough.’ It’s all keeping him convinced, because there’s nobody out there better when he’s on his game. I promise. I’ve seen him make great rides in the practice pen, just jump off and go back to feeding cows, like it’s a walk in the park. So if you can keep him convinced, he’s going to be here for a long time.”

ROAD TO A WORLD TITLE

Following the PBR Team Series, Brito made his Unleash The Beast debut as a 30-year-old rookie. He finished second at his first event, the PBR Minneapolis Invitational, in December. He followed that up with a fourth-place finish in Manchester, New Hampshire, and a fifth-place showing in Albany, New York, to close out 2022.

Brito went on to earn the first premier-series event win of his career at the PBR Kubota Emerald Chute Out in Eugene, Oregon, in February and had three more Top-5 finishes in the final month of the regular season.

When the 2023 PBR World Finals rolled around, Brito was ranked No. 1 in the Rookie of the Year race and No. 9 in the Unleash The Beast standings – within striking distance of winning a world title, but only if all the breaks went his way.

“I’m not thinking about getting the world title,” Brito said following Round 6 of the World Finals. “I’m just trying to think about bull after bull, over and over, and ride my bulls and do my best.”

After being bucked off by practice pen buddy Top Dollar in Round 1 and Stone Cold Gangster in Round 2, things weren’t looking good.

But then, Brito rode Chiseled for 90.5 points to win Round 3 before heading home to Tupelo for a few days off.

“He went home to kind of relax and get away from everything going on here,” Perschbacher said. “We hung out, bucked some bulls, and it was an easy couple of days. He didn’t have anything to worry about. I don’t even think he cooked dinner.”

Back in Fort Worth, refreshed and refocused, Brito turned things around down the stretch. He was bucked off by Ricky Vaughn in Round 4 but then rode Time Bomb for 89.25 points in Round 5 and Short Circuit for 88.5 points in Round 6.

That put him into the overall event lead heading into the final day of competition.

TAKING HIS PLACE IN HISTORY

Brito rode Red Mosquito for 88.25 points in Round 7.

With Wingson Henrique da Silva’s championship-round buckoff, Brito was not just the 2023 PBR World Champion, but the Rookie of the Year and the World Finals event winner as well.

He’s one of just four riders to win Rookie of the Year honors and the World Finals in the same year, joining Boudreaux Campbell (2020), Leme (2017), and Luke Snyder (2001). He is also the eighth rider to win both the World Championship and World Finals event title in the same season, joining Daylon Swearingen (2022), Leme (2021), Jess Lockwood (2019), Silvano Alves (2014), J.B. Mauney (2013), Renato Nunes (2010) and Mike Lee (2004).

No other rider in history has ever won all three simultaneously.

Fighting back tears, he was bucked off by Flapjack in 0.97 seconds in the championship round out he ultimately didn’t need.

“I just started to look back, all the way since I came here,” Brito said with the help of Nilson Correia translating. “It was a lot of emotions, a lot of moments, and I just thought about every moment that I passed through here.”

Perschbacher, who had been telling people she met in Fort Worth that Brito was her brother, burst into tears. When it was safe to do so, she vaulted over the fence and raced across the dirt to celebrate.

“I’m sure security loved me,” she joked. “But I went down there, and Laramie was down there, and Pessimo, and I think Pessimo tackled him in the dirt. So there was lots of excitement, and it’s been a blessing to get to watch him.

“There are really no words for this. He is so deserving. He deserves this, and it’s so cool to be able to watch him be the first Rookie of the Year to win a world title. Not only did he win a world title and get a gold buckle, he put his name in the history books forever. They can never take that away from him, and I think that’s just the coolest thing in the world. He definitely deserved it.”

After he received his buckles – three of them! – and big check and drank from the Jerome Davis Cup, Brito still seemed stunned by the moment.

“I can’t explain the emotion,” he said. “I’m still trying to process everything. I just want to thank everybody that supports me and has been here with me.

“I’m so grateful to have everybody here, like Adriano (Moraes), Silvano, Jose Vitor, and everybody, just giving me more strength to conquer what I did tonight.”

While Brito needs some time to let everything sink in, the possibility of him winning the world title was a topic of conversation at home for a good four months.

“We’ve talked about it for so long,” Perschbacher said. “I mean, ‘You could be the World Champion. Do you understand? You could win.’ And I think once we got him convinced, there was no stopping him. They made him earn it, they made him work for it, but it’s definitely an answered prayer.”

“I’m glad he finally believed in himself,” Wilson added. “Self-confidence was always a key – it never was his ability to ride the bulls. It was believing in himself. He had a rough first two rounds, but after the third round, it kind of lit a fire, and he realized he belonged here on the biggest stage. And he just kept the ball rolling and kept moving forward from there.”

Perschbacher notes that the country store back home in Tupelo was full of friends and supporters watching the bull riding, and her phone was blowing up with texts of congratulations for the bull rider they’ve become so fond of.

The love, for the record, is mutual.

“I love Tupelo, and I would like to thank Katie and Laramie for their support,” Brito said, adding with a laugh, “I love Oklahoma.”

It’ll be a little while before Brito returns to his adopted family and hometown. He has already returned home to Brazil to see his other family and relax for the summer and will be back in the U.S. to join the Rattlers for the 2023 PBR Team Series.

For now, he’s just soaking it all in.

“I always knew I had the talent to become a World Champion, and every night, whenever I did bad, I just asked God to put me in the right direction,” Brito said. “And whatever God says, I just let it go and enjoyed every moment.”

Photos courtesy of Bull Stock Media