We always love the storytelling around the PBR, so now that the second half of their season is underway, what is the best storyline? It can be summed up with one name: Jose Vitor Leme.
With ten Unleash The Beast events remaining in the regular season, statistically, Leme is on the backstretch of the most dominant one in PBR history.
“Jose Vitor Leme is, right now, by far the best bull rider in the world,” said PBR on CBS color analyst and two-time PBR World Champion Justin McBride. “Bulls have different sizes and bucking tendencies. None of that seems to matter to Leme. Right now, whatever type of bull is run under him, chances are, he’ll conquer them.”
Leme is riding just under two-thirds of his bulls (34-for-53 or 64.15%), putting himself within striking distance of the best riding percentage of all time. Guilherme Marchi stayed on for the requisite 8 seconds on more than 70% of his bulls in 2008, the year Leme’s popular Brazilian countryman won the world title.
With a sizable 424-point point lead in the world standings over No. 2 Kaique Pacheco heading into this weekend’s PBR Ariat Music City Knockout, presented by Cooper Tires, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Leme is positioned to break several records, including most round wins and the most 90-point rides in one season.
To start the elite series’ second half in mid-July at Cheyenne Frontier Days, the reigning PBR World Champion went 5-for-5 over two days of PBR’s “Last Cowboy Standing”– a grueling elimination format. Three of those rides were 90 points of more.
Then in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Leme, who is mild mannered yet intensely focused, made a ride the Western sports pundits may well talk about for as long as cowboys continue to get on 1,800-pound bulls bred to buck.
He mounted a bull named “Woopaa,” who kicked and jumped and twisted with Leme in full command, chalking up the highest-marked ride in the sport’s 28-year history, scored 97.75 points. The previous high score was 96.5 points, achieved four times, most recently by Michael Gaffney, the 1997 PBR World Champion, aboard three-time YETI PBR World Champion Bull Little Yellow Jacketin 2004.
In a nearly flawless display of athleticism and control, Leme, who was a semi-professional soccer player in Brazil before getting on his first bull when he was 17, was marked a near perfect 49.75 points (out of a possible 50), the highest ever awarded in the sport.
In PBR, both cowboy and bull contribute equally to a ride score. Woopaa, named by stock contractor Larry Barker to commemorate the word his departed friend J.P. Lewis would loudly exclaim when great things happened, contributed 48 points, tied for the 10th highest bull score in league history. Woopaa!
Fans of historic sports moments will enjoy PBR on CBS voice Craig Hummer’s exuberant call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81nAL8B5ub8
The record-setting ride had even more significance. It tied Leme for most 90-point rides in a single season with 1999 PBR World Champion Cody Hart, who notched 16 in his title-winning year.
The Brazilian, who punts his helmet after big rides, also leads PBR in 2021 round wins with 13.
The season record for most round wins is held by two-time PBR World Champion J.B. Mauney. The swaggering cowboy, who mainstream media likes to compare to the Marlboro Man, had 19 in 2013. Leme has won at least one round in nine of the 14 elite tour events he has competed at this season.
What makes all this more impressive is how the determined Brazilian has gritted through pain while putting up these astronomical numbers.
Leme broke his ankle on the very first out of the season in January in Ocala, Florida, when PBR went on an outdoor southern swing to ensure holding winter events during COVID-19. When able to return, he rode Woopaa for 94.75 points with broken ribs in Fort Worth in February. At another event, he had his ankle turned around gruesomely in the bucking chute but rode on.
Leme’s admirable grit, pure talent and record-book flirtations make this weekend’s event in Nashville must-see viewing, and particularly interesting for sports marketers as Tractor Supply Co., which recently signed a major partnership deal with PBR, debuts the sport’s new TV look – an off-the-dirt broadcast booth prominently featuring its brand. The following week, when PBR visits Fort Worth, Tractor Supply will also debut a large, open-air mobile studio, which is being billed as “College Game Day for PBR.”
The PBR Ariat Music City Knockout in Nashville will be carried by CBS Sports Network on Saturday and Sunday (August 21-22 at 8 – 10 p.m. EDT.
Additionally, the 15/15 Bucking Battle, a special round in which the world’s top 15 bull riders take on the best bulls, will air on CBS Television Network on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. EDT.
Those tuning in may see bull-riding history made. Followed by a perfectly executed helmet punt.
