PUEBLO, Colo. – PBR co-founder and Director of Livestock Cody Lambert did not even blink an eye last week when asked just how good 2020 World Champion Jose Vitor Leme is riding this season.
“The best bull rider in the world right now is good enough to be riding close to 100%, and people think that sounds crazy,” Lambert said while visiting the PBR Sport Performance Center in Pueblo, Colorado. “People think that is outrageous, but Jose Vitor Leme is good enough to be riding close to 100%.”
Lambert then paused before doubling down on his point.
“Right now, he should be very close to 100%,” Lambert said. “Think of it this way. Is there one bull that bucked Jose off this year that was too good for him?”
Yes, it may seem crazy, but Lambert’s comments are just another tip of the hat to how impressive the current No. 1 bull rider in the world has been this season.
Leme is indeed that good, and the defending World Champion is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
The 24-year-old won his third Unleash The Beast event of 2021 on Sunday, bouncing back from a Round 1 buckoff at the PBR Wrangler Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires, in Billings, Montana, by winning the last two rounds of the competition in dominant fashion. Leme surged into the event lead with 91.25 points on Hundred Bad Days in Round 3 before riding Diddy Wa Diddy for 93.25 points to snatch the event title away from 2018 World Champion Kaique Pacheco.
Pacheco was briefly ahead of Leme in the world standings on Sunday morning following his second-place finish in the 15/15 Bucking Battle.
“I never been on that bull, so when you have the first pick in the short round, it is hard because you need to pick the best bull,” Leme told CBS Sports Network’s Kate Harrison on the dirt. “I pick him because I think he is a great bull, and I just thank God for all this. This is my second buckle here in this city. I think I have something special here. Thank you to all the fans for all the support. For sure, this energy makes us ride good.”
No, Leme is not riding at 100% this season, but he is still converting at a highly impressive rate of 68.75%.
The 2017 PBR Rookie of the Year is 22-for-32 with 12 90-point rides and 10 round wins to go along with his three event victories and one 15/15 Bucking Battle win.
Leme rode 67.69% of his bulls on his way to his first gold buckle last season, and there was a stretch of time where it appeared he would become the first World Champion since Guilherme Marchi to ride more than 70% of his bulls in a gold-buckle season.
Leme is closing in on shattering 1999 PBR World Champion Cody Hart’s PBR single-season record for 90-point rides (16) after recording his 11th and 12th 90-point rides on Sunday. Leme is now five 90-point rides away from breaking Hart’s record, and he is way ahead of Hart’s 1999 pace. He has needed only 32 outs to reach 12 90-point rides compared to Hart, who needed 53 outs to notch his 12th.
“I just try to do something different every time and be special for all the fans watching,” Leme said. “I want to put my name in the history of the PBR. I want to win again, and I just thank God for all this glory.”
Leme is also averaging 89.93 points per ride. Two-time World Champion Justin McBride owns the PBR record for the highest average ride score in one season (89.35 in 2008).
“This guy is nothing short of amazing,” McBride told CBS Sports Network’s Craig Hummer. “And the season he is having – you think, ‘Oh, surely he can’t do it again this week,’ and he does. It is just 90 after 90, great ride after great ride.”
Only one rider in PBR history has won back-to-back world titles (Silvano Alves), but Leme certainly is looking capable of repeating this year.
Another world title would put Leme alongside Alves, McBride, Adriano Moraes, Chris Shivers, J.B. Mauney and Jess Lockwood as the only men in PBR history with multiple PBR gold buckles.
“He’s got a chance to be the best of all time,” Lambert said.
In fact, Lambert thinks Leme could be set up for a dominant run like the legendary Jim Sharp had in the late 1980s and early ‘90s. Sharp won his first PRCA bull riding World Championship in 1988 by becoming the first bull rider to ride all 10 of his bulls at the National Finals Rodeo. He would win the NFR bull riding average title a second consecutive year in ’89 and claimed his second PRCA championship in 1990. Sharp qualified for the NFR one final time in 1992, picking up his third event average title along the way.
If not for injuries later in Sharp’s career, Lambert believes that he would be unquestionably the greatest bull rider of all time.
“If Jim Sharp’s career only lasted six or seven years, there would never, ever be a debate about who is the best ever,” Lambert said. “Jim was still a good bull rider for the next 10 years, but nothing like he was for the first six years. There were a couple of injuries that changed it.
“Jose is that good.”
Leme has a 38.5-point lead on Pacheco in the world standings ahead of this coming weekend’s PBR Bad Boy Mowers Invitational, presented by Union Home Mortgage, in Jacksonville, Florida.
The 2021 World Championship race is far from over, but Lambert says it is clear who the frontrunner is.
“Kaique is up there. Cooper (Davis) is up there. Joao (Ricardo Vieira) is up there. They are all challenging him, but none of them can catch him,” Lambert said. “Those guys aren’t going to give up and give it to him. Jose is going to have to earn it. He is so good that without a pretty serious injury, he is going to earn it.
“He is the best.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media