CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Boudreaux Campbell glanced up at the big screens at Frontier Park Arena and looked on as 2020 World Champion Jose Vitor Leme posed for pictures on the dirt as the 2021 Last Cowboy Standing.
“I’m just taking it all in, man,” Campbell said. “You only get to live this life once, so you’d better enjoy every single minute of it. I was taking it all in, and the guy that beat me tonight is the best in the world. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. I came up a little short tonight, so I’m going to keep trying, keep giving it all my effort.
The pain and frustration were most certainly on Campbell’s face on Tuesday night.
An exhausted Campbell had dirt, sweat and defeat resting on his furrowed brow.
He knew just how close he had been to winning the most grueling event on the PBR schedule.
In the winner-take-all fifth and final round, Campbell got out of position at the end of his 81.75-point ride on Mr. Winston, cementing Leme his first PBR Major victory seeing as Leme had just ridden Safety Meeting for 91.25 points minutes earlier.
Ezekiel Mitchell, who was one of the first men to hug Campbell last year when Campbell stunningly won the 2020 PBR World Finals, this time gave him a consoling embrace under the Wyoming sky. PBR co-founder Cody Lambert and 2012 Ring of Honor inductee Ross Coleman also offered some words of encouragement to Campbell after the 22-year-old gave everything he had.
“Yeah, it does hurt a little bit,” Campbell said. “I was so close, but yet so far away. You just take the punches, roll with it. Ain’t nothing I can do about it. I rode my bull. I could’ve finished a little stronger. Time to get back in the gym, get more in shape.”
Campbell put forth a heroic effort to try to defeat the No. 1 bull rider in the world, but his 4-for-5 performance was not enough to counter Leme’s own herculean 5-for-5 work of perfection.
It was a bittersweet ending for Campbell after he had begun his march to possible victory Tuesday with an emphatic 95.25-point ride on Woopaa – the No. 1 bull in the YETI World Champion Bull race – in Round 2.
That ride would go down as the best score during the two-night bull riding, which included eight 90-point rides on the final night of competition, to net Campbell the high-marked ride $20,000 bonus.
Campbell previously had ridden Woopaa for 95.5 points to win the Unleash The Beast event in Kansas City, Missouri, earlier this season.
“Woopaa, honestly, I thought he was better today than he was in Kansas City,” Campbell said. “I thought I was about to be 96, 97. Didn’t work out like that, but still, it’s an awesome opportunity to get on a bull like that, man. Kudos to whoever raised that bull and Laramie Wilson for hauling him now. They’re doing an amazing job. He’s the real deal.”
Woopaa was the YETI “Built For The Wild” high-marked bull of the event with a 46.5-point bull score. The No. 1 bull in the world now sits atop the World Champion Bull race with a 46.46-point average in six outs.
Stock contractor Laramie Wilson joked he might need to corner Campbell in the locker room to get himself a piece of that $20,000 bonus.
“Oh yeah, I’m going to hold him down until he does,” Wilson said before laughing. “I’m happy and pumped for Boudreaux. It was a great ride. The bull still bucked. We can be a little bit better. We’ve seen him be 47 (points) in the first half. That’s where I want to be. I want to be back up there at 47 points.”
Campbell was unable to convert on his re-ride bull, Lil 2 Train, in Round 3 as the Gene Owen/Jane Clark bucking bull took him down in 6.51 seconds. Campbell, though, was able to still advance to Round 4 via his place in the event aggregate, seeing as only one rider – Leme (90.75 points on Young Man’s Blues) – earned a score in Round 3.
In Round 4, Campbell pushed himself into the fifth round with a 90.5-point effort on Dr. X.
Campbell’s second-place finish netted him 212 points toward the world standings and a $46,520.71 payday.
The 22-year-old also rocketed from No. 17 in the world standings to No. 6, putting him back into the world title conversation with the second half of the Unleash The Beast just starting to get underway with the tour next shifting to Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday and Sunday.
Campbell has been admittedly struggling all season long and entered Cheyenne only 7-for-28 (25%). In fact, he would have been cut from the premier series if not for his victory in Kansas City on March 21.
All of those first-half failures can now be put in the rearview mirror, and Campbell can focus on finishing the 2021 season much better than how it started.
“I’m glad I’m riding good again,” Campbell said. “I’m going to stay riding good. I don’t want to get back on that slump anymore.”
Campbell may not have gotten the event win on Tuesday night, but he most certainly regained the swagger he had when he stormed the PBR World Finals last year to win the prestigious event and the 2020 Rookie of the Year crown.
The Crockett, Texas, bull rider once again looked fearless. Still, Campbell knows he has a ton of work to do to try and overcome the 959.5 points between himself and Leme in the world title race. But he is ready to come back swinging in four days in Tulsa.
“This is a turning point in my season,” Campbell concluded. “I got a lot of world points, and that probably helps me get back in that (world title) race. I don’t want to just make Finals or anything. I want to win. And so, when I get that far behind, it’s hard to catch up.
“I have to keep riding. Got to keep gas on the pedal and don’t stop. Try, try, try.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media