The Oklahoma Freedom and Carolina Cowboys both added a PBR World Champion to their roster on Thursday with the first two selections of the PBR Supplemental Draft.
The supplemental draft was for riders who were available for at least five, but not all 10 regular season events.
Two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood went first to the Freedom and Davis was selected second by the Cowboys.
The 24-year-old Lockwood has been battling injuries for much of the last three years and was 7-for-32 on the Unleash the Beast Tour in 2021 and 2022. In his career, however, Lockwood has made almost $5 million and has 236 qualified rides, 41 of which were marked 90 points or higher.
“Some may think I have it backward, but I feel like I can rebuild Jess under the tutelage of Kody Lostroh, and he will become the greatest of all time,” General Manager Brandon Bates told PBR.com.
Davis, on the other hand, was considering retirement before deciding to ride in the PBR Team Series on a limited basis. Part of that decision came from being close to the action again as a television analyst.
“I was sitting there talking about how great these guys are riding every week, and you see them ride good bulls, and it pumps you up,” Davis told PBR.com. “Then you see them fall off bulls you think you could ride, and it fuels you to want to come and step up and ride those bulls as well. It is a combination of a lot of things. I still love the sport.”
Davis had ridden 47 percent of his bulls on 661 career outs. Prior to 2022, he had finished in the Top 10 of the PBR World Standings seven straight years.
The only other bull rider selected in the Supplemental Draft was Vitor Losnake, who has spent his career competing in Brazil up until this point. He went third to the Arizona Ridge Riders.
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