Dana White's Playmate Wins ABBI Classic Event in Oklahoma

You can teach an old bull new tricks.

Dana White’s Playmate is by no means old – he’s five – but this eminently talented bull with an ornery streak holding him back from super stardom has shown he can learn. After several rocky performances followed by an intense chute procedure training regimen, Playmate won last night’s ABBI Classic event in Erick, Oklahoma.

The competition featuring 32 Classic bulls three to five years old is one of about 60 this year that leads to the ABBI World Championship in Las Vegas. In total, ABBI will pay out $8 million in 2025.  

White, who purchased Playmate earlier this year from D&H Cattle Company, was of course ecstatic and posted about his “badass” bull on social media.

Spend enough time around bull stock contractors, and you’ll hear talk of bulls “doing their job.”

That job is simple: jump, kick, twist and spin with sufficient violence and torque to dispatch the human on his back holding nothing more than a bull rope in their hand and the idea in their head that this is a sensible thing to do.

Bulls who consistently perform that task with powerful athleticism and dance-hall grace are rewarded like the lead singer of a top rock and roll band. They’re treated differently with perks and pampering on a pedestal high above day-to-day existence of the rank and file.

Part of the bull’s job isn’t so simple. Well, some bulls at least, including Dana White’s Playmate, the UFC boss’s newest four-legged athlete.

Before the gate opens, triggering the rollercoaster-mayhem involving nearly a ton of flying horns and hooves, and before the ride begins, Dana’s bull like all others is supposed to stand still while the rider crawls into the bucking chute, slides onto his back, and ties his hand into his bull rope wrapped around the animal’s torso.

A bull’s thick muscles may start quivering, but he should have feet planted in relative stillness, ready for the signal to go to work. It’s like a rumbling dragster at the start line waiting for the green light before exploding down the track.

However, once riders entered the chute, Dana White’s Playmate has had scant patience for the waiting part.

In his final two outs of the PBR Unleash the Beast season, Playmate began rearing and kicking before the rider gave the go sign.

In late April in Kansas City, he rocked Dustin Herman so hard inside the chute at T-Mobile Center that North Carolina cowboy had to be carried out.

At World Finals: Eliminations in early May, he was matched against Jose Vitor Leme, owner of the highest-marked ride in PBR history – 98.75 points on Woopaa. The bull’s handler, Dennis Davis, who introduced White to PBR in 2016 (UFC’s boss attempted to ride a bull for his television show “Dana White: Lookin’ for a Fight” and nearly bought the farm), predicted a score in the high 90s. 

But Playmate’s sense of urgency again got the best of him.  

Two times, he bucked off Leme, a rider not known to dilly dally inside the chute, before the former Brazilian soccer star could finish wrapping his hand. Leme reset, and a split second before he nodded, Playmate bucked again, upsetting his balance. Out on the dirt, Leme hit the ground in less than two seconds. He was awarded a re-ride.

MMA fans new to PBR saw an unruly spectacle akin to punches being thrown at a weigh in. Bull riding purists saw a big problem and potential for rider injury. Davis saw a chance to re-train the bull so that his immense talent wouldn’t be wasted.

“When the world’s best guy has a problem getting out on your bull, you need to do something different,” Davis said. “I can’t baby him. I have to put my foot down.”

Though he’s five, Playmate is nearly a PBR rookie with only 13 career outs – ridden only once. The narrow steel confines of the bucking chute is still relatively unfamiliar territory, and that’s where Davis focused his efforts.

At his ranch in Texas, he put Playmate in the bucking chute every day for three weeks. Davis placed dummies on Playmate. Some days, the former rider would climb on his back in there.

Davis noticed that the bull would jump and start bucking whenever the gate latch popped – something that happens shortly before the gate opens.  

He trained Playmate to wait until the gate opened before bucking.

Following the training, last night in Oklahoma was the first test. Playmate heard the latch pop. He stood like a champ. He waited for the gate to open. And then he tossed Jacoby Richards in 2.1 seconds, for a total bull score of 90.30 points.

To get back to PBR World Finals in 2026 there will be more tests. 

Davis says the chute training will continue.  He’ll bring Playmate to more ABBI events, and seek invites to PBR Teams homestands, showing that this five-year-old has learned new tricks.