Brazilian cowboy wins $260,000 at first tournament-style bull riding event

Brazilian cowboy wins Iron Cowboy title

ARLINGTON, Texas — Valdiron de Oliveira’s injured right shoulder seemed to get worse with each of his four turns in the Professional Bull Riders’ first tournament-style event.

Then the Brazilian cowboy was handed the $260,000 check that went with winning the Iron Cowboy Invitational on Saturday night at Cowboys Stadium.

“After getting that check, it goes back to normal,” de Oliveira said through an interpreter after boosting his career earnings to $920,636 by outriding Travis Briscoe in the final of an event that started with 24 riders.

Neither finalist stayed on Code Blue for 8 seconds. De Oliveira went 4.5 seconds, while Briscoe lasted 3.6 seconds.

The top two seeds — defending world champion Kody Lohstroh and J.B. Mauney — were gone before the semifinals.

De Oliveira was one of four riders to cover two bulls. Nobody covered three. After a first-round bye, he opened with scores of 88.25 and 89.5 before getting bucked on his final two rides. He stayed on Big Tex for 6.9 seconds after McKennon Wimberly held on for 6.5 with the same bull.

“I don’t have enough words to say how much it means,” de Oliveira said.

Lohstroh had one of the strongest rides of the first two rounds, scoring an 88 on Ground Zero after missing the previous two PBR events because of an injured left elbow that eventually will require surgery.

Briscoe beat Lohstroh by a point on Smack Down.

“That’s the chance you run is you can make a good ride and not advance,” said Lohstroh, who earned the top seed as the defending PBR world champion.

Smack Down was the second bull covered by Briscoe, but he couldn’t stay on any of his last three. He survived two rounds despite getting bucked because he stayed on longer than his opponent. That included the semifinals, when he rode Voodoo Child for 4.8 seconds to 3.9 seconds for Guilherme Marchi.

Briscoe had a chance to surpass $1 million in career earnings. Instead, the Edgewood, N.M., cowboy settled for $40,000 as the runner-up.

“As fast as the setup was, I didn’t have time to think,” Briscoe said.

Mauney advanced on his first ride despite getting bucked in 3.7 seconds and kicked in the head on his way down. He beat his brother-in-law, Shane Proctor, because Proctor was bounced in just 2.8 seconds.

“I expect myself to win every time I nod my head,” said Mauney, who quickly disappeared to the training room after his last ride and emerged with ice on his chest and left wrist. “When you don’t, it’s a disappointment.”

Of the 14 rides from the quarterfinals on, two cowboys covered their bulls — de Oliveira and Wimberly, the only semifinalist without a PBR series victory.