If Clayton Williams ever leaves Texas, the bull rider is moving to Oklahoma City.
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"If they ever kick me out of Carthage, you look out because I am on my way,” said Williams, who did the improbable Sunday and repeated as champion of the PBR's Copenhagen Challenger Tour Championship at the Ford Center.
He won $225,000 in Oklahoma City and Guthrie last year, and this time he is leaving the state with $525,000.
"My grandpa always told me I could retire when I got $3 million in the bank,” Williams said. "Just because of Oklahoma City last year and this year, I'm a third of the way there.”
What makes Williams' victory even more impressive is that he probably shouldn't have been riding at the Ford Center.
He needs "Tommy John” surgery to repair elbow ligaments but postponed the operation for the chance to win the $500,000 top prize in Oklahoma City.
"I really don't think anyone expected to me win, not that they doubted my riding ability, but my elbow being messed up, I obviously had a strike against me,” Williams said.
Williams hadn't ridden a bull for more than a month since getting hurt in Pueblo, Colo., at a Challenger event.
"It's bothered me ever since, and it really hasn't gotten a whole lot better,” said the 22-year-old bull rider. "But it's just something that I had to put in back of my mind and go ahead and ride.”
Williams was the only competitor to ride all three bulls in the Challenger Tour Championship.
He scored an 84.25 on the bull Coyote Bill during the opening round Saturday night, then followed with an 84.5 on Cheap Trick and an 89.25 on Team Equine's Evil Force on Sunday.
Cowboys on the PBR last year won more money on Team Equine's Evil Force than any other bull. The draw was a perfect fit for Williams.
"If they would have given me pencil and paper and let me picked them, I couldn't have done it any better,” he said of the bulls.
Kolt Donaldson, 19, of Idabel, entered Sunday as the Cinderella story of the event, but he was bucked from both of his bulls.
However, the $30,000 Donaldson won in Oklahoma City will qualify him for the PBR's elite Built Ford Tough Series, which comprises the top 45 riders on the tour.
Williams is now a half-a-millionaire, but he doesn't have big plans for the money.
"The big majority of the money is going to be put up,” he said. "Everybody keeps making fun of me because I still live with my parents in a room that is about 12 x 16.
"I really don't think it's all that funny, but maybe I will at least add on to my room.”
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Clayton Williams rides Cheap Trick during the PBR's Copenhagen Bull Riding Challenger Tour Championship Sunday. BY SARAH PHIPPS, THE OKLAHOMAN
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