PUEBLO, Colo. – The 2020 Unleash The Beast begins Friday night at Madison Square Garden in New York with the Monster Energy Buck Off at the Garden, presented by Ariat, and PBR.com will be counting down the final days of the offseason by taking a look back at the Top 5 bull riders at the conclusion of the 2019 season.

Fans can watch Round 1 exclusively on RidePass beginning at 7:45 p.m. ET.

Today, we look at Jose Vitor Leme, who finished second in the 2019 world standings.

No. 2 Jose Vitor Leme

World Championships: 0
Best World Standings Finish: 2 (2018 & 2019)

2019 Premier Series (UTB) Stats
Rides: 51
Attempts: 93
Riding Percentage: 54.84%
Top Ride: 92.75 points on Cochise (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Average Ride Score: 85.55 points
Wins: 4 (Duluth, Georgia; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Anaheim, California; Springfield, Missouri)
15/15 Bucking Battle Victories: 2 (New York & Columbus, Ohio)
Round Wins: 18
Top 5: 13
Top 10: 18
90-point Rides: 12

2019 RECAP: Jose Vitor Leme finished 4-for-6 and placed sixth overall at the 2019 PBR World Finals. Leme came up 852.51 points behind Jess Lockwood, who won the World Finals by going 5-for-6, in the final world standings in one of the most exciting title races featuring haymaker after haymaker.

2019 was the second consecutive year in which Leme finished runner-up in the world standings, but this past season was a hard pill to swallow even though he finished farther back of Lockwood than he did of 2018 World Champion Kaique Pacheco (-422.5 points).

The 6,374.99 world points Leme earned in 2019 would have won him the World Championship in each of the past four seasons. Leme’s 18 round wins was one shy of two-time World Champion J.B. Mauney’s PBR record (19), and his 12 90-point rides was tied for the eighth-most all-time and second-most in 2019.

One of those 90s was 92.5 points on 2019 World Champion Bull Smooth Operator to win the Columbus, Ohio, 15/15 Bucking Battle. Leme and Cody Teel were the only two riders to conquer Smooth Operator in 2019.

Leme, though, faced a stiff challenge from Lockwood and No. 3 Chase Outlaw in one of the toughest title races in recent memory.

The trio finished tied for the most UTB regular-season wins (4), and were the only three riders to sit atop the 2019 world standing.

Leme was relatively dominant all season long, but he did fail to earn world points in six Unleash The Beast events (22% of the 27 events he competed in).

So, while Leme was extremely successful when he reached 8 seconds (hence the 18 round wins and 12 90-point rides), his lack of consistency at times opened the door for Lockwood to remain in contention for a world title despite missing three months because of a broken collarbone.

Leme has also failed to win a PBR Major so far in his career, which makes it extremely difficult to win a world title based on the amount of points available at Majors. Each of the last four World Champions won a PBR Major on their path to $1 million.

OUTLOOK: It is hard to look at Jose Vitor Leme’s 2019 season as a failure, but coming so close to winning a world title with a fantastic overall season certainly stings.

Now Leme is tasked with attempting to join fellow Brazilians Guilherme Marchi (three straight runner-up finishes) and Kaique Pacheco (two straight) in trying to shed the bridesmaid title.

In Leme’s case, he was like Peyton Manning running into Tom Brady during the past decade, or Dominque Wilkins attempting to overcome Michael Jordan in the 90s. There are moments in sports history where great athletes are tasked with challenging legends, and that may just be the case when it comes to Jose Vitor Leme and Jess Lockwood.

“There were some great bull riders during Jim Sharp’s reign, and they weren’t going to beat him,” two-time World Champion and CBS Sports analyst Justin McBride said. “It wasn’t because they weren’t damn good, it was just because Jim Sharp is one of the best that has ever been. That is kind of the route Lockwood is on. For all the times I want to choke him, he is en route to being one of the greatest ever.”

By no means does that mean Leme is incapable of unseating Lockwood from his throne in 2020, but Leme, who has the potential to one day become a PBR legend in his own right, is going to have to continue to strive to be that much better if he hopes to defeat him. In addition, to be fair, Lockwood is going to have to keep working at improving if he hopes to hold off another generational talent like Leme.

“He will be fine mentally,” McBride said. “He is a little competitor, and he is going to bounce back and go after it again. I don’t think mentally he will be flawed at all. He will be the same great competitor. It is not rocket science. He has to learn how to ride away from his hand better.”

Since making his debut at the 2017 PBR World Finals, where he went 6-for-6 for the victory, Leme leads the PBR with 98 qualified rides in 175 outs (56%). Leme’s 20 90-point rides is also the most in that timeframe. Lockwood is 68-for-125 with 18 90-point rides. Of course, Lockwood has those 50 fewer outs compared to Leme because of injuries.

The two juggernauts gave fans a remarkable title race in 2019 and pushed each other to new heights, and that may end up being the case again in 2020.

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko