PUEBLO, Colo. – The 2020 World Championship race on the rider side may be fairly one-sided for the time being, but the bovine battle that has been taking place all year long seems to be getting tighter.

World No.1 Chiseled and 2019 YETI World Champion Bull Smooth Operator are neck and neck with four regular-season Unleash The Beast events remaining before the 2020 PBR World Finals in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 12-15.

Only 0.03 points separate the two bulls in the 2020 YETI World Champion Bull race ahead of this weekend’s PBR Wrangler Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires, on Oct. 3-4 in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Chiseled (46.06 World Champion Bull average) and Smooth Operator (46.03 World Champion Bull average) are both slated to buck in the championship round Sunday afternoon. Both can increase their World Champion averages with a 45.75-point or higher bull score inside Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Fans can watch the Championship Round and the conclusion of the PBR Wrangler Invitational on CBS Sports Network at 2 p.m. ET and RidePass at 1:45 p.m. ET.

The 2020 YETI World Champion Bull will be the animal with the highest average bull score from their top eight regular-season outs and two outs at the PBR World Finals.

Smooth Operator, who is attempting to become the first 10-year-old World Champion Bull, is coming off a 45.75-point outing for bucking off two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood in 3.63 seconds in Des Moines, Iowa.

“A lot of power right there in Smooth Operator,” two-time World Champion and CBS Sports analyst Justin McBride said during this weekend’s CBS broadcast. “Lockwood is good around the corner, and that is just raw power handing it to him right there. That is a great bucking bull in Smooth Operator, and you have to tip your hat to that animal athlete right there because that is a great one.”

Meanwhile, Chiseled will be bucking for the first time since he took care of 2012 PRCA champion Cody Teel in 3.17 seconds in Billings, Montana, at the beginning of the month.

“He did it in only one or two jumps,” McBride said. “Those are really, really long jumps, and that gets a guy’s upper body leaning back. That is a really, really good score for most bulls, but Chiseled is capable of even more.”

Other top YETI World Champion bull contenders slated to buck this weekend in Lincoln include No. 3 Hocus Pocus (45.34 World Champion Bull average) and No. 4 I’m Legit Too (45.22 World Champion Bull average).

WHO’S IN & OUT THIS WEEKEND

This weekend’s event at Pinnacle Bank Arena is optional for all bull riders, and the PBR has invited 35 riders to compete. The first 30 draw spots were filled based on the 2020 world standings. Riders with World Champion exemptions, riders with guaranteed event exemptions or riders with approved injury exemptions filled remaining spots. The remaining draw spots were then filled based on the current season’s world standings.

Riders inside the Top 35 that are not competing this weekend

No. 7 Colten Jesse (hip)
No. 8 Dener Barbosa (broken jaw)
No. 14 Mason Taylor (not cleared to compete)
No. 15 Fabiano Vieira (severe head injury)
No. 19 Matt Triplett (groin)
No. 28 Aaron Kleier (in Australia)
No. 29 Dakota Buttar (in Canada)
No. 30 Tye Chandler (hip surgery)
No. 31 Ryan Dirteater (broken collarbone)
No. 32 Lachlan Richardson (in Australia)

Alternates this weekend

No. 36 Junior Patrik Souza (-0.5 points behind No. 35 Silvano Alves)
No. 37 Taylor Toves (-1.5 points)
No. 38 Cody Casper (-9 points)
No. 39 Rafael Henrique dos Santos (-10 points)
No. 42 Paulo Lima (-15.5 points)
No. 48 Boudreaux Campbell (-31.84 points)

Riders competing via exemptions

No. 45 Bradley Brittain (-23 points)
No. 55 J.B. Mauney (-44.5 points)
No. 112 Cody Nance (-84.84 points)

Cody Nance missed the last UTB event in Des Moines for a maintenance weekend, but he returned to competition last weekend at the Gooding, Idaho, Touring Pro Division event. OLS Tubs Riggs bucked him off in 5.66 seconds.

RELATED: Round 1 draw for Lincoln

Nance has drawn Burn It Down (14-2, UTB) for Round 1 in Lincoln.

Leme looks to win fourth consecutive event

World leader Jose Vitor Leme will look to pick up where he left a few weeks ago before not being cleared to compete in Des Moines. Prior to missing Des Moines, Leme had ridden seven consecutive bulls and won three consecutive events and a 15/15 Bucking Battle.

The streak of dominance has Leme surging toward the 2020 World Championship, and he leads No. 2 Joao Ricardo Vieira by 545.09 points. No. 3 Kaique Pacheco is 713.5 points behind Leme, while defending World Champion Jess Lockwood is 716 points off the top pace.

Lockwood will attempt to chip away at Leme’s lead and earn possibly 44 points at the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour event in Casper, Wyoming on Friday night (RidePass 9:30 p.m. ET).

Lockwood is the top-ranked bull rider that decided to compete in Casper before heading to Nebraska. He is set to take on Empire (0-0) in Round 1.

Joining Lockwood in Wyoming before heading to Lincoln are No. 6 Daylon Swearingen, No. 27 Joao Henrique Lucas, No. 33 Dakota Louis, No. 36 Junior Patrik Souza, No. 38 Cody Casper and No. 42 Paulo Lima.

Leme has drawn Gangster Time (3-1, UTB) for Round 1 in Lincoln on Saturday night.

Vieira leads Round 1 rematches as he tries to gain ground in title race

Vieira will have a familiar foe in Round 1 as he tries to chip away at the deficit between Leme and himself. The 36-year-old is set to take on Tested & Bruised (7-1, UTB/METC) in Round 1.

Here are the other rematches for Round 1:
Brennon Eldred vs. Air Assault (7.13 seconds in Salt Lake City last year)
Junior Patrik Souza vs. Quickfire (3.07 seconds in Minneapolis last year)

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photos courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media