2016 PBR World Finals photos: Cooper Davis wins world title, Ryan Dirteater tops World Finals event
It took five days and six rounds after a tight, weeklong battle that went down to Sunday’s final round, and Cooper Davis of Texas emerged as the $1 million 2016 Built Ford Tough Professional Bull Riders world champion.
Cooper went 4-for-6 with the bulls and won Round 5 of the World Finals with a 91-point ride on Catfish John at T-Mobile Arena, propelling him past Kaique Pacheco and 2015 world champion J.B. Mauney.
It was Cooper’s first 90-point ride at a World Finals, capping the closest championship-points battle in PBR history. Cooper became the 16th rider to claim the PBR world champion gold buckle and $1 million bonus, and he is the first to be crowned at T-Mobile Arena, new home of the World Finals. Cooper finished third in the World Finals event, which he won last year.
Ryan Dirteater of Oklahoma won the 2016 World Finals event after a 6-for-6 week capped by an 89.75-point trip aboard Brutus to end a week in front of the largest PBR World Finals crowds ever. Ryan earned $250,000, surpassing $1 million in career earnings.
The bulls get credit, too: SweetPro’s Bruiser was named 2016 world-champion bull after a 46.25-point performance for his 7.15-second buck of 2016 PBR Brazil champion Dener Barbosa in the Built Ford Tough championship round. Chad Berger was named 2016 Stock Contractor of the Year, the sixth time he has earned top honors.
Jess Lockwood of Montana was named 2016 Rookie of the Year even though he did not record a ride at the World Finals and finished the season eighth in the world standings with 885 points ahead of 37-year-old Wallace de Oliveira in rookie standings.
Here’s the remainder of Robin’s Robin Rundown of the World Finals Top Five: 2008 world champion Guilherme Marchi of Brazil finished second in the World Finals after a 5-for-6 performance capped by an 87.5-point ride on Red Rover in the championship round. Guilherme ended his season as the sixth-ranked bull rider in the world.
2016 Canadian champion Ty Pozzobon finished fourth in the World Finals. Ty, who went 4-for-6, led the event through most of the week before being bucked off by Margy Time and SweetPro’s Long John on Sunday. He finished 23rd in the world standings.
2015 and two-time world champion J.B. Mauney of North Carolina rounded out the Top Five after his 3-for-6 performance. J.B. was bucked off by Stone Sober in 4.42 seconds in the championship round and ended the season third in the world standings.
Our thanks to Heather Croze of PBR for her assistance with this report and to contributing photographer Tom Donoghue for his thrilling action gallery in snorting range ringside. The Top 35 bull riders gather next in New York’s Madison Square Garden for the Monster Energy Buck Off from Jan. 6-8 to open the gate on the 2017 Built Ford Tough Series.
Here are the final results:
PBR Built Ford Tough Series
2016 Built Ford Tough World Finals
T-Mobile Arena
Event leaders (Round 1-Round 2-Round 3-Round 4-Round 5-Round 6-event aggregate-event points)
1. Ryan Dirteater, 86.75-86-87-86.5-87.25-89.75-523.25-2077.91 points
2. Guilherme Marchi, 0-89.5-87.25-88.75-88-87.5-441.00-1440 points
3. Cooper Davis, 87.5-0-88.5-83.75-91-0-350.75-1172.5 points
4. Ty Pozzobon, 84.25-89.5-88.5-86.25-0-0-348.50-710 points
5. J.B. Mauney, 85.75-87-0-90.25-0-0-263.00-520 points
2016 PBR Built Ford Tough Series World Standings
(Place, rider, events, wins, Top Five’s, points, total winnings)
1. Cooper Davis, 42, 6, 17, 5,930.00, $1,452,707.75
2. Kaique Pacheco, 50, 5, 19, 5,441.58, $448,801.38
3. J.B. Mauney, 33, 5, 17, 4,822.50, $368,512.93
4. Ryan Dirteater, 36, 4, 9, 4,547.91, $498,441.28
5. Joao Ricardo Vieira, 48, 4, 15, 3,420.00, $304,935.06
We say a fond farewell to the cowboys with their boots and Stetsons and a safe journey home from our concrete city to nature’s wilds. Come back as soon as you wish!