TUCSON, Ariz. – There were plenty of times in the past year in which 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis would have thoroughly enjoyed being a spectator for a round of competition like it was on Saturday night at Tucson Arena.

Davis certainly would have had some fun commenting on television on a night where the bull riders brought their A game with 19 qualified rides. In fact, it would be hard to find anyone in attendance not on the edge of their seat as each 8-second ride continued to sound the successful buzzer in the Grand Canyon State.

When Davis first put on his Carolina Cowboys PBR Team Series jersey earlier this summer, there was a good portion of him convinced he would not be pursuing a world title in 2023 on the Unleash The Beast. He would simply compete for the Cowboys and maybe contribute to the PBR’s television broadcast and take some time off before the Teams series reconvened later in 2023.

However, things began to change once he returned to competition in September for the Cowboys after having his 2022 Unleash The Beast season shuttered in January because of two reconstructive left shoulder surgeries.

Davis realized he physically could still ride at an elite level.

He could still win.

He still felt like one of the best bull riders in the locker room.

A fire to win a world title slowly crept into his mind as he was attempting to help Carolina win the inaugural PBR Team Series Champion.

“I was going to come back and only do Teams, but once you get in the swing of things, it’s hard to quit when you feel like you’re at the top,” Davis said Saturday night in Tucson. “Now I’m back to saying ‘I don’t know if I’m going to go to three more years or five years or be like Ednei (Caminhas).’

“I think as long as I feel like I can win a world title I will keep going. I think I’m good enough to win a world title. No disrespect to anybody, but I think there are four guys right now that are at the top of their game and I think I’m one of them.”

Davis, who went 12-for-17 in PBR Teams competition, proved that on Saturday night, tying for the Round 1 win at the Monster Energy Invitational with Brady Oleson (89.75 points on Hard Candy) and Daniel Keeping (89.75 points on Sky Walker) courtesy of his 89.75-point ride aboard Mikey’s Surprise.

The ride was vintage Davis, and it certainly looks like the 28-year-old is ready to make a push for his second gold buckle since winning his only championship six years ago.

Davis is tied with Oleson and Keeping atop the Unleash The Beast standings, and the trio holds a 5.5-point lead on No. 4 Boudreaux Campbell, who rode Riser for 89.5 points in Round 1, in the early-season world title race standings.

The 2023 PBR World Champion will be the rider who earns the most points on the Unleash The Beast tour, including at the 2023 PBR World Finals in Fort Worth, Texas.

Championship Sunday from Tucson begins at 4 p.m. ET live on CBS Sports Network.

And who are the other three riders that Davis believes will be his strongest opposition in 2023?

“Daylon (Swearingen), Kaique (Pacheco) and Jose (Vitor Leme),” Davis said before Round 1 began.

Sure enough, Daylon Swearingen and Kaique Pacheco were right up there with Davis on Saturday night. Leme is currently out of competition because of broken ribs sustained during the PBR Team Series Championship in Las Vegas.  

Swearingen, the defending PBR World Champion and Davis’ Cowboys teammate, tied for 14^th in Round 1 with his 85.75-point ride on Otis, while Pacheco, the 2018 World Champion, tied for sixth with an 88.5-point effort aboard his re-ride bull, Harold’s Genuine Risk.

Davis explained that getting back into World Championship-contending form never worried him. He knew he could get back into riding shape, as well as get leaner, after sitting out for six months because of a torn rotator cuff, labrum and broken shoulder capsule. There was rather a fear that he could have the same fate as so many other riders who have struggled to come back from reconstructive surgeries.

“Physically, it wasn’t hard to come back, but mentally, I was in a space where I thought that was it, and a lot of that came from not knowing how my shoulder was going to go,” Davis said. “I’ve seen guys have those shoulder surgeries and come back and (fail) to do it again. I never want to do that, but as long as I’m here, I feel like I’m capable of winning.”

Davis finished third in the 2021 World Championship race, but he was unable to keep pace with Leme and his record-setting campaign. Davis also placed third in the 2018 title race, and he was 20^th in the world standings last year before he sustained his season-ending shoulder injury in Sacramento, California, in a fluke deal where he was tossed into the middle out gate following an 89.75-point ride on Back Jack.

“I feel like the last two, three years … really if you go all the way back to 2019 (No. 5 in the world standings), I could be riding with two (gold buckles) already. There’s situations and what-ifs, but I still think I’m riding now as good as I’ve ever ridden.”

DAVIS HASN’T FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE CAROLINA COWBOYS POSTSEASON DISAPPOINTMENT

Davis could have also had a PBR Team Series gold buckle on his waist this weekend, but the Cowboys underwhelmed at the 2022 PBR Team Series Championship in Las Vegas. The Cowboys failed to advance to Championship Sunday (Final 4) and were eliminated in the second round of the competition by the Texas Rattlers in the Last Chance Game.

The Cowboys were a pre-season favorite with Davis and Swearingen leading the charge, but the team wound up short of a championship after also going 15-13 in the regular season. 

“It was frustrating,” Davis admitted. “I’ll take it to my grave, but I don’t think there was a better team there. I think that the guys were highly disappointed in ourselves, but sometimes that’s just the way it goes. I think if we had drawn different bulls, it would’ve been a different outcome.”

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media