PUEBLO, Colo. – If you’re still unfamiliar with the name Maikon Calixto Rocha, you might want to jot it down.
He was the Kansas City Outlaws’ first pick of the 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series New Rider Draft (No. 4 overall), and the Outlaws have a history of picking winners in the draft.
In 2023, they picked a relatively unknown bull rider named Cassio Dias with the No. 5 overall pick.
Dias, of course, went on to challenge two-time World Champion Jose Vitor Leme for the Teams MVP award, falling short by a single ride, before winning seven events in his rookie Unleash The Beast season and winning the 2024 PBR World Championship.
Credit goes to Outlaws assistant coach Guilherme Marchi, himself the 2008 PBR World Champion, for finding Dias and encouraging the Outlaws to take a chance on him. While Dias was the 2022 PBR Brazil Champion, his competitive results in the U.S. were pretty unremarkable. He’d made his U.S. debut at the 2022 Challenger Series Championship in November, where he failed to record a ride. He won one iteration of the Stockyards Showcase in Fort Worth, Texas, finished an impressive 11th in his Unleash The Beast debut, and placed eighth at the 2023 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals.
He was truly a diamond in the rough. And now, Marchi has a reputation.
“The pressure is on me because they believed in me and said, ‘You can pick whoever you want. We believe in you, and it’s all in your hands,’” Marchi said with a laugh.
Rocha is more of an unknown quantity than Dias was when he was drafted. When the Outlaws selected Rocha, he had just five PBR outs under his belt – one PBR Brazil event and one Challenger Series event – and was 0-for-5.
By the time the PBR Teams series began in July, Rocha had improved to 2-for-9 but couldn’t compete in Teams due to a tourist visa issue.
“It’s funny – I don’t know about him much,” Marchi said at the season-opener in Oklahoma City. “I just saw a couple videos and followed him since I met him. I said, ‘Oh, I think that kid, he could be something.’ The way he rides, the way he thinks about bull riding. And since we drafted him, he’s shown us he has all the ability to ride bulls. He’s so quiet, just like Cassio, and he loves to ride bulls. He loves to practice. He doesn’t care if it’s a rank bull or an easy bull – he gets on. And he wants to be better and better.”
By the time Rocha made his Teams debut last week at Stampede Days in Nashville, he was 5-for-15.
Rocha was finally in the lineup for the Outlaws as they took on the Austin Gamblers in Nashville. While he only got one out that weekend, he made the most of it, converting aboard Workin’ Man for 85 points and helping the Outlaws trounce the Gamblers 337.75-0.
“The bull’s moving forward, hopping, skipping, but they’ve got the confidence on their team right now,” CBS and Merit Street analyst Cord McCoy said. “Kansas City is on a roll.”
Indeed, the Outlaws had another strong showing in Nashville, going 2-0 to improve to 7-4 on the season and No. 2 in the standings. While Dias is an uncharacteristic 6-for-14 (42%) this season after suffering numerous injuries at the 2024 PBR World Finals in May, the presence of a World Champion has elevated the entire locker room.
“That means a lot for the other riders,” Marchi said. “They see, ‘Oh, this guy, he shows up and nobody knows him yet, and now he’s a World Champion.’ It makes a difference. It pushes the other guys more because Cassio won. They’re going to the ranch, they want to get on bulls, they want to work a lot, work hard, and help the other guys make themselves better.
“I tell you, the energy this year is better than last year. I hope we have a great year this year and win more events than last year. It’s a great team. New guys coming from Brazil that can ride bulls pretty good. We’ve got Sandro (Batista) still hurt – we don’t have him for a couple months, but we’re going to work hard to stay on top.”
So far, it’s working, and Marchi is over the moon for Dias, who’s become something of a surrogate son.
“I’m so proud of Cassio,” Marchi said. “He’s my first pick, and he’s so grateful, too. And not just for him being the World Champion, but what he did at the Finals with a broken back. That shows a lot, how much you want to be better, how much you believe in your dream. That comes from his heart, and I’m so proud of him. I hope he does great again this year.”
Of course, Cassio Diases don’t grow on trees. Just because a Brazilian bull rider looks promising doesn’t mean he will immediately set the world on fire, and Marchi knows this.
While the pressure was on him to pick the PBR’s next star, most of the work toward making that happen falls to Rocha.
“There’s no shortcuts – how they work out, how they practice, and we build every week, every day,” Marchi said. “They need to want it. If they don’t want to be better, there’s nothing we can do. We can push, and we can take care, but it comes from him, from his heart. If he wants to be the best, it’s more easy to work.”
Rocha is in the draw for this weekend’s Gambler Days in Austin, Texas. He’ll take on Down to Fly as the Outlaws face off against the 2023 PBR Teams Champion Texas Rattlers (4-7) on Friday, Aug. 23 (9 p.m. ET on Merit Street and Merit+).
And Marchi is not shy about hyping up his latest prospect.
“That’s the next Cassio Dias right here,” he said with a grin. “That kid is something else.”
Photo courtesy of Todd Brewer/Bull Stock Media
