The PBR Unleash the Beast Bad Boy Mowdown 2019

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LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas – There’s a storm brewing over Little Rock as the PBR Bad Boy Mowdown gets set to be the main attraction this weekend at Verizon Arena. That storm has two-time world champion, J.B. Mauney at it’s epicenter.

Back around January 26, Mauney snatched his gear bag from the floor of the delivery room after holding Jagger Briggs Mauney, his newborn son, for the first time and jumped a jet to Sacramento, California. After making his season’s best ride of 88 points on Bridwell Pro Rodeo’s Hou’s Bad News, he came off clean but was run down by the bull, suffering a broken fibula and sustaining extensive soft tissue damage.

Since then, the North Carolina native bull rider has made unsuccessful attempts to ride with the injury but has been working relentlessly on rehab and has about 90 degree flexion in the knee going into both The American semi-finals and the Bad Boy Mowdown. He’s been on his old school drop barrel to practice and feels like he’s ready enough.

“Depending on how I do, I’ll rent a car and drive between Fort Worth and Little Rock,” said Mauney. Let’s hope that rental is equipped with long lasting, tough Cooper Tires because that road between the two venues is a rough one.

2019 goals for 32 year-old Mauney include championship runs at the PBR and World Champion Cowboys Association (WCRA). With career earnings at $7.3 million dollars, Mauney says the WRCA opportunity is a rich one for all rodeo contestants and can’t be ignored.

Seven other riders face being dropped from the Unleash The Beast Tour depending on the outcome in Arkansas. Koal Livingston, Emilio Resende, Alex Marcilio, Stetson Lawrence, Keyshawn Whitehorse, Ramon de Lima and Eduardo are all riding for their competitive lives at the Bad Boy Mowdown.

Lori O'Harver

Lori O'Harver is a woman on a mission to tell the stories of the world without borders known as Bronc Riding Nation. From the vast grasslands the great bucking horses call home to the bright lights of Las Vegas, where good ones buck and the people called to ride them come to make their high flying dreams come true, she writes about the horses and people who feel the spirit of freedom and devote their lives to keeping the legends alive.