DULUTH, Ga. – Take a deep breath Woopaa fans, your beloved 2021 YETI World Champion Bull is set to make his long-awaited season debut this coming Sunday at the PBR Gwinnett Invitational in Duluth, Georgia.

"We got to bull house Friday and he took the trip well and seems to be enjoying the cool weather," Laramie Wilson said. "He has grown and filled out since the Finals, but he has been getting exercised and is in just as good of shape."

Woopaa is slated to buck in the championship round, and the riders inside the locker room are already salivating for the chance to select the star-studded bull who produced eight 90-point rides last season with the No. 1 pick of the championship-round draft (Sunday 8 p.m. ET CBS Sports Network).

One of those riders, to no surprise to anyone, is Jose Vitor Leme. The two-time reigning World Champion will love to match up for the fifth time against his best buddy in his season debut as well this weekend at Gas South Arena.

The human and bovine defending champions of the PBR may be extremely different in size and stature, but the two champs are actually similar in many ways.

In particular, their foes are going to need a herculean effort to supplant them atop the championship favorites list.  

“Any bull who challenges Woopaa is going to have his flawless, best year just like the riders challenging Jose,” PBR Director of Livestock and Ariat Texas Rattlers head coach Cody Lambert said before the season. “It is really cool that they came along at the same time and their paths have crossed so much. They are kind of the same type of competitor.”

Woopaa and Leme have always made some kind of magic together in their four previous meetings. The first meeting occurred at the 2020 PBR World Finals when Leme clinched his first world title with a 95.75-point ride. Woopaa was marked 46.75 points as he left AT&T Stadium with the 2020 ABBI Classic championship as well.

The second meeting between human and bull dancing partners was last year when Leme returned from a broken right ankle to ride Woopaa for 94.75 points at the historic Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas, and his first event win of the 2021 season. Not to mention, Leme pulled off the ride despite having broken ribs.

“Last year I came back from a broken ankle, this year I come back from a groin injury, I hope this year is the same like last year, just not the part of my ribs being broken,” Leme said with laughter.

The last two matchups between Leme and Woopaa resulted in two of the greatest rides in PBR history.

Not only did Leme ride Woopaa for a record-setting 98.75 points to win the World Finals, but the ride also came exactly 100 days after he broke the previous 22-year record for the highest score in PBR history when he rode Woopaa for 97.75 points in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the end of July.

The 2022 YETI World Champion Bull will be the animal with the highest average bull score from their top six regular-season outs and two outs at the PBR World Finals. With the reduced number of UTB events in 2022, the PBR lowered the minimum number of outs a bull needed to qualify for the World Championship this year compared to the standard eight of past seasons.

Woopaa is not the only rank bull slated to buck inside Gas South Arena this weekend. D&H Cattle Company star bull Chiseled, who has finished runner-up in the YETI World Champion Bull race in consecutive seasons, will be joining Woopaa with his season-debut in the championship round.

The current No. 1 bull in the very early 2022 YETI World Champion Bull standings is Moonlight Party with an average bull score of 45.63 points in two outs.

“Woopaa is the one they got to beat,” Lambert said. “He checks every box on what we teach in the judging seminars. The buck. The kick. The direction change. The intensity and the degree of difficulty.”

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media