Daylon Swearingen promises you just have to look. It’s out there.
The 23-year-old New York native is helping bring bull riding center stage to Madison Square Garden, where the Professional Bull Riders league is competing from Friday to Sunday as part of its tour.
A Piffard, N.Y. native, Swearingen was crowned the 2022 PBR World Champion, as his career continues to reach new levels. At the moment, he’s likely the promotion’s biggest rising star and greatest talent.
Which, of course, begs the question. How did someone who grew up just outside Buffalo rise to the top of bull riding?
Daylon Swearingen wants to be a pioneer in bull riding. Courtesy of Andy Watson / Bull Stock Media“There’s still a lot of rodeo in New York,” Swearingen told The Post. “Outside the city, there’s upstate New York, that’s where I grew up. My whole family has always done it. … It’s just something I’ve always grown up doing. I guess the life chose me.
“When people think about New York they think about New York City. There’s a lot more to this state than just the city. … There’s rodeos all over the state of New York. You just got to look for them, they’re there, they’re just not at Madison Square Garden every week.”
Swearingen’s father, mother, uncle and grandfather were in the sport, exposing him to bull riding at a young age.
Now residing in De Kalb, Texas, Swearingen provides the sport one of its greatest outlets to expand its audience beyond its normal demographics. He also delivers a blueprint for young athletes as a pioneer.
“Anybody can come from anywhere if they wanna do something,” Swearingen said. “You just gotta put your heart to it and go do it. I hope to show that to kids in New York and other states where rodeo isn’t such a big deal. It doesn’t really matter where you’re from – you set your goal to it and your mind to it you can do it. It’s really important. There’s a lot of people here in New York City, and just bring understanding to these people about bull riding.”
PBR is back at The Garden for the 16th time. This time around, the stop was named one of the tour’s Majors, resulting in an increased purse and greater world points winnings.
Daylon Swearingen grew up in Piffard, N.Y. Courtesy of Andy Watson / Bull Stock Media The arena has featured basketball, hockey, boxing, college and so many other famous champions in its lauded history. Now, as Swearingen becomes the first New York-born bull rider to compete at Madison Square Garden, it adds a hometown champion to the list.
“There’s no better spot to start the year off than here in Madison Square Garden,” Swearingen said. “There’s so much history in that building, it’s pretty cool, we went to the Knicks game [Wednesday] night, there’s so much happening in this building. I have a lot of goals of being at The Garden. When I was a kid, my goal was to start the year off at the Garden. It’s really cool that there’s so many champions that have performed in this arena, and then to go do it myself.”
