SALT LAKE CITY — Under the bright lights of a sold-out Delta Center, Paulo Eduardo Rossetto delivered one of the most technically impressive and emotionally charged weekends of his premier series career, claiming the PBR Salt Lake City presented by Busch Light event title and surging into the thick of the Unleash The Beast World Championship race.
Friday night’s opening round featured the latest installment of the Monster Energy Team Challenge, the team-versus-team format embedded within the sport’s elite individual tour.
Buckoff after buckoff followed, with riders unable to solve their matchups as the round wore on. One by one, the field came up empty — until Rossetto emerged as the lone rider to make the whistle between both games.
Competing for the Missouri Thunder, Rossetto logged the lone qualified ride of the Show Me State Showdown, lifting Missouri to an 87.75-0 victory over the Kansas City Outlaws. The matchup carried added weight as one of the league’s fiercest rivalries, with both teams hailing from Missouri and pride on the line whenever the in-state foes meet.
Rossetto was no stranger to Walk Hard, having covered the bull for 89 points during the 2025 PBR Teams season in August — experience that paid dividends when the re-ride opportunity came.
Before that re-ride, Missouri head coach Ross Coleman stood beside Rossetto behind the chutes, pouring every ounce of belief and intensity into Rossetto.
“Ride strong, ride long, and keep the focus, because you’re a cowboy,” Coleman told him.
Rossetto answered with the same calm, measured focus that defines the quiet Brazilian.
Rossetto’s 87.75-point score on Walk Hard, earned after being granted a re-ride, delivered the night’s only qualified ride, secured the head-to-head win, and pushed the Missouri Thunder to 3-0 in Monster Energy Team Challenge competition — a perfect start that now has them leading the METC standings one game ahead of the Austin Gamblers.
Saturday: Switching Hands, Taking Control
Rossetto carried that momentum into Saturday, but his path to victory was anything but ordinary — and perfectly emblematic of the rider he has become.
He opened the weekend riding Walk Hard with his left hand before being bucked off Boo-Boo’s Boo Thang in Round 2, again riding left-handed. Facing a pivotal moment, Rossetto made a decisive adjustment, switching bull ropes and climbing aboard Scrappy with his right hand.
The fresh hand paid off immediately.
His 88.90-point ride aboard Scrappy — a season-high score — vaulted him to the top of the event leaderboard. From there, he never relinquished control, pairing that ride with his earlier Monster Energy Team Challenge conversion to lock in the event win.
Left hand. Right hand. Same result: eight seconds.
When the final whistle sounded, the emotion poured out. Rossetto swung his helmet around the arena floor and let out a roar, unable to contain the excitement of a weekend that demanded adaptability, focus and trust in every decision. It was a rare, unfiltered release from the typically soft-spoken rider — and a fitting exclamation point on a performance that reshaped both the event and the standings.
As Rossetto completed his championship-round ride, the reaction was immediate.
“This is just textbook from Paulo Rossetto. Outstanding bull ride,” 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis said on the Paramount+ telecast, as the Brazilian stayed centered and composed atop a notoriously difficult bull.
Moments later, in his post-event interview, the Brazilian returned to one of the few English phrases he knows best — “I love America” — delivering it proudly, as he always does, with heartfelt gratitude.
“Thank you America, thank you Missouri, thank you Ross Coleman and Luke Snyder and thank you for the help America.”
Rossetto earned 126 UTB points for the victory and rocketed from No. 10 to No. 4 in the world standings, now sitting fourth overall with 341 points.
A Skill Built Long Before the Spotlight
For Rossetto, riding with either hand is not a novelty — it’s how he learned the sport.
Growing up in Brazil, he often rode with a single bull rope, flipping it depending on which hand felt right that day. Now, he travels with two ropes — one left, one right — always prepared to adapt. Even this weekend, he competed wearing a brace on his left elbow, still considering himself right-hand dominant, but trusting feel and fundamentals when it mattered most.
Born in Colorado, Brazil, Rossetto was raised in a rodeo family and introduced to bull riding under the guidance of his father, Angelo, a former bull rider himself. Ahead of the Salt Lake City event, Angelo delivered a simple message: Paulo needed to win to collect valuable points for the season.
That’s exactly what he did.
Missouri: More Than a Team
After establishing himself in Brazil, Rossetto joined PBR in 2022 and quickly caught the attention of the Missouri Thunder, who selected him in the first round of the 2023 Reserve Rider Draft. By 2024, he had broken through on the Unleash The Beast tour, qualifying for his first PBR World Finals and leading Missouri with a team-best riding percentage.
In 2025, Rossetto helped anchor Missouri’s run to the PBR Teams Championship Game in Las Vegas, delivering a 90.75-point ride on Constant Payne in the Last Chance Game to earn Day 1 MVP honors.
That same team-first mentality was on full display again in Salt Lake City. Even as the only rider to convert in Missouri’s Monster Energy Team Challenge matchup, Rossetto was quick to credit those around him.
“It’s not just me — everybody together makes each other stronger,” Rossetto said.
The sentiment was illustrated moments later during his post-event locker room interview, where teammate Felipe Furlan translated Rossetto’s Portuguese for team captain Andrew Alvidrez, who then relayed it into English — a seamless example of how Missouri operates as a unit.
That unity starts with coach Coleman. Known for his intensity behind the chutes, he is just as much a trusted friend and the Thunder’s loudest believer — a presence that has fueled Missouri’s rise from its 2025 PBR Teams Championship run to its perfect start in Monster Energy Team Challenge play. Under his guidance, the Thunder now sit 3-0 and atop the METC standings, holding the edge over the 2-0 Austin Gamblers. Though Missouri trails Austin in aggregate points, the standings are determined by wins — and the Thunder keep finding a way to win.
Soft-spoken by nature, Rossetto lets his riding do the talking.
In Salt Lake City, it said everything — and it pushed him firmly into the heart of the world title race.
Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media