‘Pele of bull riding’ saddles up for his last PBR World Finals

His right forearm -- the size of many men's calves -- has been a lifeline for Adriano Moraes.

It looks like 100 of his 185 pounds are muscles running from fingertip to shoulder. It has been more than the link to staying on the planet's rankest bulls.

Since joining the Professional Bull Riders in its first season in 1994, Moraes, 38, has won three world championships, 29 event titles and $3.5 million.

"When I came here in 1994, bull riding already was big in Brazil," he said, adding that it didn't pay a lot of money. "I don't think I'd have come back the next year without the PBR. We could never imagine back then how big this would become."

When Tuff Hedeman won the world title in 1995, he made $123,595. Since 2003, the world champion has received at least $1 million.

Moraes will hang on for his final PBR World Finals beginning tonight at the Thomas & Mack Center. The proud Brazilian announced his retirement in January.

It's hard to imagine next year's Built Ford Tough Series tour without him, but his legacy will ride with fellow Brazilians who he has nurtured to become top bull riders.

Perhaps his biggest legacy will be how he has reached out with his can-crashing right hand to lift many young Brazilian riders out of poverty.

Points leader Guilherme Marchi is among three Brazilians in the top five entering today's first of eight rounds held on seven days through next weekend. Three more are in the top 20, including Moraes at 20th.

"Some of these kids are like me -- poor kids who worked on ranches and might have made $400 a month," said Moraes, a devoutly religious man. "Money should not be your motivation, but for many of the guys from Brazil it is the only way for them to make a very good living.

"But the joy of bull riding has to come first. When money is your only motivation, then you can not make much money."

PBR chief executive Randy Bernard calls Moraes "the Pele of bull riding."

"Adriano has brought kids over here without a penny to their names and hardly a shirt on their back," Bernard said. "They have become very wealthy. His country is better off because of him."

Moraes was a two-time Brazilian champion when he ventured north in 1994 and competed in enough Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. In his first and only NFR, he became only the third man at the time to ride all 10 of his bulls, won the event title and finished fifth in the world standings.

That year he also joined a new series formed by 20 bull riders called the Professional Bull Riders.

The PBR and Moraes have grown together.

Bernard said sponsorship revenue that year was about $365,000.

Today, Bernard is chief executive and board chairman with 123 full-time workers, most of whom are based at the PBR headquarters in Pueblo, Colo.

This year's sponsorship income is about $25 million, according to Bernard. Next year the PBR World Cup will be in Brazil, where Bernard said 80,000 will show up for each of three performances.

Moraes plans to continue living on his 400-acre ranch near Tyler, Texas, and focus on promoting the PBR worldwide by conducting bull riding schools from the United States and Brazil to Spain, France, Canada and -- believe it or not -- Hungary.

"I want to use bull riding to educate kids about life, faith and self-discipline," he said

His journey will take him thousands of miles around the world, but he won't have any trouble carrying his suitcase.

• BLOG -- Visit LVRJ.com/rodeo for more PBR World Finals news.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.