FORT WORTH, Texas – The real Cooper Davis took a few rounds to show up at the 2023 PBR World Finals in Fort Worth, Texas.

But now that he has, look out.

The 2016 World Champion got on the board in Round 3 when he rode re-ride bull Bubba G for 88 points, good for a tie for fifth place in the round.

“I was really excited,” Davis said about facing Bubba G. “That’s a bull we get to see everybody get on and be a bunch of points on, regardless if he goes left or right. It doesn’t matter – he’s got so much timing that a guy at this stage should be able to ride him pretty easy.”

What wasn’t easy was his first attempt of the night aboard Medicine Man – it earned him just 66.5 points.

“I knew coming into today that I had one that was going to be a fistfight,” Davis said. “It was one of those things you have to kind of accept it is what it is and get through it and see what the outcome is. You could either be 90 or 75, and I don’t know how many points we were, but I knew it wasn’t enough, so as soon as they said re-ride, I was ready to get on my next one.”

It was huge for Davis, ranked No. 4 in the Unleash The Beast standings, to get this score. Though he sits 12^th in the World Finals aggregate, he’s now a bull ahead of No. 2 Jose Vitor Leme (0-for-3) and just three points behind No. 3 Dalton Kasel in the aggregate. He’s also 2.25 points ahead of No. 6 Dener Barbosa.

No. 5 Boudreaux Campbell, Davis’s teammate on the Carolina Cowboys, sits second in the aggregate, having gone 2-for-3 with a 90.25-point ride on I’m Legit Too in Round 3.

“I’ve known Boudreaux since he was a little kid, and he was always one of those guys that you knew, as soon as he got here, he was going to be successful,” Davis said. “So whenever you see him fall off a bull that you know he can ride, that would leave you scratching your head. But then he shows up on days like today, and that’s the Boudreaux we know. That’s the Boudreaux we expect to see every time.”

Davis also knows Campbell could pass him in the standings and even become a World Champion.

“We’ve got a lot left (in the Finals), and it could be him,” Davis said with a smile. “If my teammate wins it, that’s cool, but I’d sure like it to be me.”

The admiration between the teammates is mutual.

“I wasn’t around in 2016, but I’ve looked up to him and known him since I was a little bitty kid,” Campbell said. “He’s always kind of had that dog in him, that fight in him, and it’s very, very hard to get this guy on the ground. Only the very best bulls in the world.”

Because Davis got on two of them on Sunday afternoon, he was hurting a bit afterward, emerging from the sports medicine room with a bag of ice taped to his right riding hand.

“Getting old,” Davis said with a laugh. “It’s just preventative. My hand’s been a little sore coming into today, and getting on a couple of strong ones doesn’t help that, but it’s nothing new.”

But Davis has plenty of reasons to fight through the pain.

“About 1.4,” Davis said with a grin, referring to the $1.4 million a rider receives if he wins the World Finals and the World Championship.

Davis is 28 years old now. Not over the hill by any means, but not the spring chicken he was when he won his world title seven years ago. While he’s always flirting with the world title race, he hasn’t been truly in it since 2017. 2023 has been something of a resurgence for the dominant cowboy.

He’ll take the few days off to take ice baths, hit the gym, and take his son Mack to baseball practice. But come Round 3 on Thursday (9 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network), Davis will be ready to once again give it absolutely everything he’s got.

“I’m way hungrier this year than I have been since 2016,” Davis said. “To be honest with you, in 2016, I didn’t know what it meant to be a World Champion. I didn’t know how it felt. And having that taste and having it slip away for the last few years and knowing that I let it slip away and that I haven’t put the work in that I needed to has made me want to work twice as hard as I ever have this year, fight through the bumps and bruises a little more, and dig down deep. That way, I can say at the end of this that I left it all out there.”

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media