PUEBLO, Colo. – It is YETI Bull Week and the PBR can’t celebrate the best bucking bulls in the world without taking a look back at 2022 YETI World Champion Bull Ridin Solo.
Ridin Solo became the 19th champion bull in PBR history after going 14-3 with seven bull scores of 46 points or higher and traveling close to 20,000 miles across the United States. The Oklahoma native began his title-contending season on the east coast in New York City and has bucked as far south as Arlington/Fort Worth, Texas, and as far north as Everett, Washington.
Stock contractor Cord McCoy has not set a return to competition date for Ridin Solo, but the coach of the Oklahoma Freedom says Ridin Solo is feeling good and enjoying life as a World Champion.
McCoy and the Freedom head to Cowboy Days in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, this weekend before hosting their homestand – Freedom Fest – on Sept. 16-18 in Oklahoma City.
Today, PBR.com’s From the Vault series looks back at Ridin Solo’s championship season.
Ridin Solo wins the 2022 YETI World Champion Bull title
FORT WORTH, Texas – It may have seemed at first that Ridin Solo did not like being up before sunrise on Sunday morning, but once the bright lights of Dickies Arena were turned on, it was all business for the No. 1 bull in the world.
Ridin Solo bucked off 10-time PBR World Finals qualifier Joao Ricardo Vieira in 4.8 seconds during the championship round of the 2022 PBR World Finals for a 47-point bull score to win the 2022 YETI World Championship and $100,000.
“JRV is probably the best bull rider around to the left there is on the globe, and I didn’t feel confident that Solo could buck him off to the left,” stock contractor Cord McCoy said. “I didn’t feel confident that Solo could buck him off to the left. I know I was waiting for that changeup. I’m just glad that, through perseverance, through three years in the PBR, Solo has learned that changeup, or he would’ve lost today.
“To go out and win the world title, a sold-out house in Dickies Arena, against JRV, it couldn’t have been set up better.”
McCoy was confident on Sunday morning when he got to Dickies Arena that Ridin Solo was ready to cement himself as the 19th different World Champion Bull in PBR history when he learned Ridin Solo was causing a ruckus.
“The guys that unloaded him this morning said that he was really, really fired up,” McCoy said. “They tried to pen him by himself, and he just wanted a different pen, and he was trying to crawl up, crawl over. I’ve seen him act like that before. It’s always been a positive thing, so he’s got a lot of energy today for Sunday.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media