PUEBLO, Colo. – When Caden Bunch returned to the locker room after winning the PBR Tucson – the first premier series event win of his career – he made sure one particular person was in the know.

He snapped a picture of his event buckle and sent it to his mom, Jeannie.

“She was at home, and she was just constantly getting on the app and seeing updates of who’s riding and stuff,” Bunch said. “She said she’s really proud of me. She’s helped me out since I was a little kid. She’d do anything for me. She’d do anything for anyone. She’s a good person.”

Bunch may never have even become a bull rider had it not been for his mom.

Growing up, his grandfather had a ranch, so he spent most of his time around cows. Bunch says he always wanted to ride, but his grandfather, Charles, wouldn’t let him because of the risk it would pose to the calves and his income.

When Bunch was 3 or 4 years old, a junior rodeo came to his hometown of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and Jeannie took him.

“My mom took me down there, and I rode a sheep,” Bunch said. I just fell in love with it. Been doing it ever since.”

Caden was an active kid, playing football, basketball, and baseball, and he recalls one particular instance when he was around 10 when his mother taught him a lesson that would change his life.

“I got hit by a pitch in baseball, and I wanted to quit,” Bunch said. “My mom, she wouldn’t let me quit. She said, ‘You can quit next year, but you’re going to finish this season and give it all you’ve got. You ain’t no quitter.’ And she just always told me, ‘You ain’t quitting. You’re a winner.’”

Bunch didn’t last much longer in baseball and eventually gave up basketball and football to pursue his bull riding career, but that mentality of refusing to quit has stuck with him.

Competing under the bright lights of the Unleash The Beast stage hasn’t rattled him because he knows he’s a winner.

“I’ve just thought I’m the best, and when I show up, I’m going to give it all I’ve got,” Bunch said. “I’m going to be the best, for sure. That’s all I’ve ever thought. I don’t really like to put it in the back of my head that, ‘Oh, this guy might be better,’ or something like that. I think I’m the best.”

In Tucson, he certainly was. He rode Ah Hell for 86 points in Round 1, followed that up with 88.25 points on Mighty Mike in Round 2, and capped it off with 89.25 points on Concho in the championship round.

“My goal was just to ride all three of my bulls,” Bunch said. “Just knock ‘em down one by one. Don’t think about the next one – just ride the one you have tonight and keep going from there.

“I’d built up quite a bit of momentum through the Team Series and had a lot of confidence. Still got a lot of confidence in myself. I know I can do it. But after Tucson, I really knew I was supposed to be here.”

Bunch spent the 2023 PBR Camping World Team Series season with the Oklahoma Freedom, now the Florida Freedom after a relocation. On the surface, he may not have had the flashiest stats and wasn’t in the regular-season MVP race, but digging into the numbers shows a different story. He didn’t begin his season until Freedom Fest in September, missing out on the first half of the regular season. But in his limited action, he went 11-for-17 (64%) with one 90-point ride as the Freedom’s closer, turning into a huge bright spot for a team that went 14-14 before placing sixth at the PBR Camping World Teams Championship.

Bunch readily admits that his season blew his expectations out of the water.

“I really wasn’t even thinking about it very much when I first got on the team,” he said. “I just went out and had fun, and whatever happened, happened. I just kept doing that ever since because it’s been working – just having fun and doing my thing.”

Bunch says he’s learned a lot from head coach Cord McCoy and assistant coach Kody Lostroh and still keeps in touch with them during the Teams offseason. McCoy reached out with words of encouragement following Bunch’s win in Tucson.

“Cord, he texted me the next day and was really excited,” he said. “He said he was really proud of me and just keep doing what I’m doing.

“Cord keeps it simple, says to have fun. He says this is our job; this is what we were born to do. We’re not here just ‘cause. We’re here for a reason.”

Thanks to Bunch’s win at the first event of the season, he takes the world No. 1 rank into the PBR St. Louis on Dec. 2-3. Action begins Dec. 2 at 7:45 p.m. ET on RidePass on Pluto TV.

Bunch is a member of one of the most stacked rookie classes the PBR has ever seen, joining the likes of seven-time PRCA bull riding world champion Sage Kimzey and 18-year-old phenom John Crimber.

“Sage, he’s a little older. He’s a seven-time world champ. He’s a rookie,” Bunch said. “You’ve got John Crimber – he’s an 18-year-old. He’s pretty good. One of the best 18-year-olds. Kaiden Loud – 18 years old. He’s one of the best 18-year-olds going down the road. It’s stacked up, for sure. It’s going to be a long race. It’s going to go all the way to the end, for sure.”

But he hasn’t forgotten the veterans that still crowd the top of the Unleash The Beast World Championship standings.

“Joao Ricardo Vieira and Jose Vitor Leme, them kind of guys – those are the guys you have to beat,” Bunch said. “All of us young kids, we’re real good and we’re coming up, but shoot, they probably ain’t just looking at me. They’re looking at Jose and JR trying to get to the No. 1 spot.”

It’s shaping up to be one hell of a Rookie of the Year race – and one hell of a world title race. The PBR World Finals in May are still months away, but Bunch already has a lofty goal in mind.

“It’d be pretty cool to do what Rafael (Jose de Brito) did last year – triple crown,” Bunch said, referring to winning a world title, Rookie of the Year, and the World Finals event title in one go. “Triple crown. That’s a big goal, but it’d be a cool one to accomplish.”

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media