PUEBLO, Colo. – As CBS Sports Network’s Craig Hummer said during the championship round of the PBR Little Rock, “the bulls are definitely having a good day at the office.”

Holding the best bull riders in the world to just 19 rides in Little Rock, Arkansas, it was yet another impressive show of bull power as the season inches closer to the 2024 PBR World Finals in Arlington and Fort Worth, Texas, in May.

But if there’s one bull to keep an eye on, it’s Man Hater.

The No. 1 bull in the YETI World Champion Bull standings pretty much since the outset of the Unleash The Beast season, the Jane Clark/Gene Owen standout has racked up a truly astounding number of sky-high bull scores. In seven outs this UTB season, he has yet to score below 45 points. He’s scored 46 points or above five times and north of 47 points twice.

In January, at the Monster Energy Buck Off at the Garden, presented by Ariat, he scored a whopping 47.75 points – the highest bull score since the 2021 PBR World Finals. (That ride, you might recall, was Jose Vitor Leme riding Woopaa for a record-setting 98.75 points.)

Man Hater’s dominance extends back into the 2023 PBR Camping World Team Series season, which also counts towards the 2024 world title. His last three outs of that season eclipsed 46 points, and he hasn’t looked back.

Man Hater could very well be on the road to a world title, but the race isn’t over until each of the top bulls records two outs at the World Finals.

And in Little Rock, Man Hater had a down week – that, to be fair, would be an up week for almost any other bull.

Man Hater faced Eduardo Aparecido, bucking the veteran off in 6.62 seconds for a bull score of 45 points, snapping his streak of four consecutive 46-plus-point bull scores.

“You know he’s got to want it right now,” 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis said on CBS Sports Network. “This bull almost pulls him down right here, and if he touches him with his free hand, so be it, but he is putting out the effort on what is, in my opinion, one of the most exciting bulls of all time.

“A 45 bull score right there. Still a good bull score, but not what we’ve been seeing out of Man Hater.”

To this point, Man Hater has accumulated so many high scores that he can drop his lower scores heading into World Finals. This 45 will be thrown out and not affect him at all.

This is the first event in which Man Hater has competed this season that he didn’t win the YETI “Built for the Wild” Bull of the Event title.

That honor went to the No. 2 and 3 bulls in the standings, UTZ BesTex Legend and Flyin Wired.

Flyin Wired bucked off Caden Bunch in 4.65 seconds.

“I think Caden was relying on him to go left right there and kind of dove off there and put all his eggs in one basket,” Davis said. “Flyin Wired was smart enough to change things up and go right. Pretty good bull score right there.”

Meanwhile, Legend dumped Keyshawn Whitehorse in 1.99 seconds, both bovines earning a bull score of 45.25 points.

“We should see some big-time bull scores right here,” Davis said. “Legend really fakes left and goes right. Forty-five and a quarter right there on the bull score – now we’re really starting to get into that championship caliber of bucking bulls, and Keyshawn just doesn’t get his hips down in time right there. Really good out right there from Legend.”

Two-time reigning YETI World Champion Bull Ridin Solo was also in the draw in Little Rock but scored just 43.5 points.

What will the bovine athletes of the PBR bring us in the last seven events of the regular season? Only time will tell.

The UTB next heads to New Mexico for the PBR Albuquerque Ty Murray Invitational, the final PBR Major of the season, on March 22-24. With more money and more points on the line, this is one you won’t want to miss.

Photo courtesy of Todd Brewer/Bull Stock Media