Winning uglyNunes makes up for odd style with unmatched effort |
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Michael Gaffney loves the fact that he’ll “try his guts out.” Ty Murray calls the Brazilian “my favorite guy right now.” And Jerome Davis calls him “the real deal.”
“I love watching him ride,” added J.W. Hart.
Although the 2008 Built Ford Tough Series has been Nunes’ breakout season in the PBR, fellow riders have long admired the gritty effort of the 27-year-old from Buritama, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Tried and true fans and casual observers, however, may not have understood just how good he is until he stuck it to Chicken on a Chain in the short go of the St. Louis event for an impressive 95.75-point effort.
That one ride, along with his first of two event wins, solidified the emergence of Nunes as a viable world title contender.
“What can you say about that guy?” Davis asked rhetorically. “That was one of the best rides I had ever seen.”
If that was indeed the moment he established himself, his meteoric rise to being among the world’s best was a few years in the making.
Unlike many cowboys who started learning how to ride sheep before they ever learned how to ride bicycle, Nunes didn’t take up the sport until he was 18 years old. Within a year, he was a major force at events throughout Brazil, and just few years later – 2005 – the then 24-year-old made his BFTS debut.
Last year’s 14th-place finish in the world standings made the collective eyes of the sport begin to pay more attention.
Anyone who gave the scrappy go-getter a legitimate look could see he put forth more effort than any other rider, which in turn has quickly made him one of the most exciting newcomers to watch.
“He throws a ton of Hail Marys,” Murray said, “and it’s all grit, try and determination. I just think it makes him really fun to watch and it garners my respect when I see a guy that the one thing he’s going to guarantee to himself is that he’s going to lay his guts out on the line.”
Make no mistake about it … Nunes is a great athlete, a talented bull rider and a mentally tough competitor.
“As a fan of the sport,” Murray said, “that’s what I’m drawn to—the guys that before they crawl into the chute they say, ‘I can’t guarantee I’m going to stay on, can’t guarantee I’m going to get a good score, can’t guarantee anything, but I can guarantee that I’m going to try my (butt) off until my head hits the dirt.’ He’s that guy.”
“Just the go-at-‘em attitude that he doesn’t have to be over the front of a bull to try and ride ‘em,” is what Hart admires. “He just tries to cling to ‘em any way he can. It’s kind of appealing to me to see how good he is.
“It’s either win or crash and burn trying, and I think that’s why everybody likes him. His attitude is just like Ricky Bobby: if you ain’t first you’re last.”
Like his countryman Valdiron de Oliveira, Nunes is anything but conventional.
In spite of his small stature – he’s generously listed as 5-foot-7, 135 pounds – he’s extremely strong, which is why he’s able to get away with leaning back time after time.
To say he leans back too far may actually be an understatement, but for any technical misgivings, his effort is second to none. And that effort may be his saving grace when he finds himself in trouble on the backside of a rank bull.
“When the bull starts to change directions or they kick really high, it has you in a bad position,” said Cody Lambert, who further explained the problem with leaning back as opposed to being up over the top of your rope. “If the bull is spinning it wants to whip you to the outside of the spin so much more than if you were up over the front of the bull.”
“When you see guys get back on the end of their arm like that, the next thing you see is them get jerked down and get hit in the face,” Davis further explained before adding, “but this guy can stop himself and still make the corner and be there for the whistle.”
It’s because of that effort Nunes, currently ranked 5th in the world, has the potential to earn a few go round wins during the upcoming World Finals, and could conceivably win the average.
His unconventional style has led to some hardcore slams to the dirt, but Nunes has been relatively injury-free – aside from a partially collapsed lung during last year’s Finals that didn’t keep him out of competition – throughout his four years of riding in the States.
Lambert noted only one other fault that has little to do directly with his riding, but indirectly may have an effect—and that is the fact that Nunes is enjoying his American experience.
“He’s having so much fun with it that a championship isn’t important to him right now,” Lambert said. “He wants to win every week and do well and he knows he can ride all kinds of bulls.”
“That kid is the real deal,” Davis said. “He’s one those guys that will be a threat, and it’s all a matter of when it’s going to happen.
—by Keith Ryan Cartwright
