ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Silvano Alves' list of accomplishments is simply staggering.

Midway through his third season on the Built Ford Tough Series, he's had one of the greatest career starts in PBR history - perhaps the greatest ever.

He's the first rider to have won a world title the season after debuting as PBR Rookie of the Year. He's won eight BFTS events, compared to the six by Justin McBride in the first three seasons of his career. Alves has recorded 24 Top 5 finishes in 58 events, and 32 Top 10 finishes.

He was the youngest to reach $1 million in career earnings, and last week he became the youngest to reach the $2 million milestone.

"That's impressive," said 2009 World Champion Kody Lostroh. "That's really impressive."

"He has all that it takes to be one of the best, as far as I'm concerned," said two-time World Champion Chris Shivers. He added that to have eight wins at this level is "incredible," and that it speaks to Alves' overall ability.

'He has all that it takes to be one of the best, as far as I'm concerned.'

Lostroh agreed. "Right now, my opinion of Silvano is he's heads and tails above the rest of us."

Coming off a year in which he dominated the competition, Alves is riding at a career-best 72.41 percent, and is ranked fourth in the world standings.

He won the Last Cowboy Standing event in Detroit, and the Glendale (Ariz.) Invitational last week.

"Watching Silvano from my perspective is pretty fun - I mean, I'm not tooting my own horn - but as a past World Champion, to know what it takes," said Lostroh. "He hasn't varied from that at all. He's always the same."

In 2009, Lostroh focused his attention on riding one bull at a time for one event at a time, over an entire 10-month long season.

 "(Alves) may not be winning the world at the moment," he said, "but the thing is, he's so fundamentally strong. He's mentally strong. He doesn't get on emotional highs and lows. The only thing I can knock him on is missing opportunities for re-rides when he obviously rides good enough to ride the re-ride bull."

"I see moves that he makes where only a handful of guys that are going to be able to do that," Shivers said. "He's going to be one that's going to win for a long time."

The key, according to both Shivers and Lostroh, is that Alves wins with consistency over a long period of time.

In 2012, Alves' highest marked ride is 89.5 points. He simply continues to outride the competition from one round to the next. In fact, last week, he was the only rider to cover all four bulls, and won with scores of 86.5 points, 87.25 points, 86.5 points and 87.75 points.

'He's won as much as he has because he is that good. It's not a fluke.'

In addition to having the highest riding percentage in the BFTS, he has covered 21 bulls - one more than Valdiron de Oliveira, and three more than world leader J.B. Mauney.

"It's not about high scores anymore," Shivers said. "It's about the average."

"Realistically, that's the truth, just for the fact that these bulls are so good," Lostroh said. "Our riding percentages aren't high enough for it to be about big rides. I want to get all our riding percentages up, so it is about that."

"It works for him," continued Lostroh, referencing Alves' history of declining re-ride opportunities, "but it would just be tough if I were in those shoes."

Still, Alves has actually declined a re-ride once this season.

For now, Shivers said he watches Alves each time he climbs in the chute, because he expects the reigning World Champion to cover for 8 seconds and put himself in a position to win.

The reason Shivers expects him to ride every time is the fact that only once since arriving in the U.S. has Alves bucked off four bulls in a row, and only twice has he bucked off three. As professional - both here and in his native Brazil - he's never bucked off as many as five in a row.

"He's won as much as he has because he is that good," Lostroh said. "It's not a fluke. There are a lot of guys who come in and tear it up for a year, but he hasn't varied from that standard."

CATCH THE ACTION: There are effectively two competitions this weekend: The Ty Murray Invitational, and the 15/15 Bucking Battle. The points from the Battle do not count toward the outcome of the Ty Murray Invitational, which is a regular-season event. The 15/15 Bucking Battle will physically take place tonight at The Pit, and can be seen Sunday on CBS at noon ET (Please note this is regular CBS, not CBS Sports Network, and that noon ET is much earlier than our usual broadcasts - 9 in the morning for West Coast fans). The final two rounds of the Ty Murray Invitational will be shown on CBS Sports Network later the same day at 6 p.m. ET.