PUEBLO, Colo. – New York City has the Hudson River.

Now, the New York Mavericks have a Hudson of their own.

“Heck yeah!” Hudson Bolton exclaimed with a laugh. “I didn’t even think about that!”

Last week, Bolton joined the ranks of PBR Camping World Team Series first-round draft picks when he was selected No. 3 overall by the Mavericks.

The 18-year-old from Milan, Tennessee, has never been to the Big Apple. That’ll change on Aug. 9-10, when the Mavericks host their first-ever homestand, Maverick Days, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“I’m excited to go,” Bolton said. “(I’m looking forward to) just looking around. Everybody talks about the city and stuff, and I just want to see what it looks like.”

And, of course, grab some New York pizza.

Bolton is a newcomer to the PBR scene, having competed in just three Challenger Series events. He’s 2-for-7 in those three events, with a second-place finish at the WCRA Rodeo Corpus Christi in May.

He’s spent most of 2024 on the rodeo circuit, and while he’s playing it by ear, he still wants to rodeo during his free time.

PBR Teams, however, was too good a deal to pass up.

“I think it’s a new beginning for bull riding, honestly,” Bolton said. “Everybody’s been talking about it so much. And it’s for half a year, and I thought it would be good to be on a team with some good guys and learn some new stuff.”

RELATED: New York Mavericks select Hudson Bolton with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 PBR Teams New Rider Draft

Bolton will be under the tutelage of head coach Kody Lostroh and assistant coach Ednei Caminhas, PBR World Champions in 2009 and 2002, respectively.

Not bad leadership for your first stint in the PBR.

“I think Kody Lostroh is going to be a good coach and definitely make me better, for sure,” Bolton said. “We’d talked a little bit before the combines and then some at the combine. I remember watching some of his videos when he used to ride.”

The PBR Teams combines are where Bolton secured himself a spot on coaches’ radars. In January, when he was still just 17, he went 4-for-4 to win the International Finals Rodeo at the Lazy E in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

“I knew I rode pretty good, but I didn’t know all the other coaches, what they really thought,” Bolton said, “I went to that combine before in Bowie, Texas, and rode all my bulls there, and I was hoping they got a pretty good look at me. But I still wasn’t too sure.”

Bolton had had discussions with all of the coaches before the PBR Teams New Rider Draft on May 29 in Nashville, Tennessee, so he was confident he’d be drafted. He just didn’t know who might end up selecting him.

When he finally heard his name called, he was elated.

“I was super excited,” he said. “I wasn’t really expecting it to go like that, and then they ended up calling my name. My heart was pounding in there, and they called my name, and it was just one of the best feelings ever.”

Because Bolton is still so new to the PBR, he says he doesn’t know most of the riders he’ll be sharing a locker room with. One of the guys he does know, however, is Marco Rizzo, the Mavericks’ second-round draft pick.

RELATED: Lostroh and Mavericks building team dynamic heading into PBR Teams draft, inaugural season

It’ll be a whole new world for Bolton, who stumbled into the sport thanks to his older brother Bryce’s interest in it.

“There wasn’t much bull riding in Tennessee that I knew of, really, because I was never really around it,” Bolton said. “But me and my brother, our birthdays are four days apart in January. Tuff Hedeman used to put on a bull riding right down the road in our hometown, and we used to take our buddies and we used to go watch that for our birthdays. We’d go watch the bull riding every year.”

When Hudson was 10 and Bryce was 14, Bryce decided he wanted to ride bulls.

“My brother wanted to ride bulls, and I just kind of did whatever he did,” Hudson said. “We went to one of these little Thursday night family rodeo deals, and he asked my dad if he could go. And he ended up going, and I was like, ‘Heck, I’ll go with him.’ And I went with him and got on a little mini bull. From there, it just kicked off.”

In an unfortunate twist of fate, Bryce no longer rides bulls due to a torn ACL. But he’s still his brother’s biggest supporter.

“He texts me all the time – every time I make a bull ride, he tells me good job and stuff,” Hudson said. “I send him some of my videos, and he’ll tell me what I did wrong.”

And after the draft?

“Oh yeah, he was pumped about it,” Hudson said. “He was pretty excited.”

Bryce will have plenty of reasons to text when the PBR Teams season kicks off with Wildcatter Days on July 12-14 in Oklahoma City.

But for right now, Bolton is just happy to be a Maverick.

“I’m super blessed to get picked third. I think it’s really a blessing,” he said. “I want to ride all my bulls and have a good riding average, and then help my team to win. Help everybody be better.”

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media