Legend of Oklahoma City continues
Williams wins Challenger title, collects check for $500,000
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Oklahoma City, OK (February 17, 2008) - Last year Clayton Williams became a household name.
One year later, the legend of Oklahoma City continues.
The 24-year-old from Carthage, Texas returned to the Ford Center, which is fast becoming the house that Clayton Williams built, and for the second year in a row he won the Copenhagen Bull Riding Challenger Championship presented by Dickies.
With the win Williams adds $500,000 to his career earnings total.
Coming into this weekend he had earned $319,247.31 of which $264,000 was earned right here in Oklahoma City. In large part because of his Challenger win a year ago Williams went on to be named the 2007 Daisy Rookie of the Year.
“Thanks to Copenhagen I’ve made more money in two bull riding events than a lot of guys make in their career,” he said, standing alongside his father after being presented with a check for $500,000.
The fact that Williams was even able to compete this weekend was no small feat in itself.
He’s been out of competition since the middle of January after getting his arm stepped on by a bull at a Challenger event in Pueblo, Colo.
Until this weekend the injury has really hampered Williams’ 2008 season. He’s currently ranked 45 on the Built Ford Tough Series and was close to being cut from competing on the BFTS series.
Although there are no points for this weekend the money total will count and as a result Williams, provided he’s healthy, may well have assured himself a spot in Las Vegas for the World Finals.
On the bright side, along with one of the richest payouts for a single event in PBR history, there were definitely no signs of his early-season struggles.
He was the only rider to cover all three of his bulls for 258 points.
In fact, the bulls got the better of the riders for much of the weekend with only seven out of 45 cowboys even managing to cover two rides. The short go proved especially difficult with only three qualified rides out of 15.
In lead with four riders left in the short go, Williams was asked what it would be like to win the Challenger Championship for the second time and he simply answered, “I guess it would be twice as good as last year.”
J.B. Mauney was bucked off of Blizzard, who has only been ridden once in all his outs, and for the fourth time in his career Guilherme Marchi was bucked off Pandora’s Box in short go, securing Williams’ eventual place in PBR history.
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