FORT WORTH, Texas – The end of the year is fast approaching, and that can only mean one thing: the 2025 Unleash The Beast season is nearly upon us.

We hope you’ve recovered from an absolutely wild 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series season, because the 2025 UTB kicks off with the PBR Tucson in Tucson, Arizona, on Nov. 15-16. Round 1 from Tucson Arena airs Friday, Nov. 15, at 8:45 p.m. ET on PBR+.

Before we dive into another season, PBR.com is taking a look at some riders to keep an eye on as the calendar flips to 2025.

Last year’s standouts: Cassio Dias, John Crimber

The 2024 World Championship race was one for the record books and kept us enthralled all year long. While Eduardo Aparecido, Dalton Kasel, and Alan de Souza remained in the mix all the way up until the PBR World Finals, it was really a two-man race: Cassio Dias vs. John Crimber.

Dias ultimately won the world title, coming close to rewriting the history books in the process. He recorded seven event wins, tying for second-most in a season all-time, and led the league with nine 90-point rides and a 53.95% riding percentage (41-for-76). He’s the second rider ever to win the world title and Rookie of the Year honors in a single season. This all came after he made his premier series debut in the 2023 PBR Teams season, where he came within one ride of winning the MVP award. He most recently finished fifth in the 2024 PBR Teams MVP race (22-for-36, 61%), so we’ve never seen a version of Cassio Dias that’s less than dominant.

The only reason the 2024 world title race was even a race was because of Crimber’s consistency. Dias may have won seven events and 13 rounds, but Crimber won one event and 14 rounds of his own to keep pace. Additionally, he finished second in seven events and had 14 total Top 10 finishes. There was a reasonable possibility that a rider who won the second-most events in a season all-time could’ve not won the world title, and that’s a huge testament to how good Crimber was.

Crimber’s world title hopes came down to the final bull of the season, and ever since falling short, he’s used that failure to fuel him. He blitzed through the 2024 PBR Teams season, going 30-for-44 (68%) to win the regular-season MVP award and carry the Florida Freedom all the way to Championship Sunday. While the Freedom fell short in their quest for the gold buckle, Crimber was again awarded for his riding, taking home the PBR Teams Championship MVP award after going 4-for-4.

If we were putting money on it, we’d bet on another few years of watching Dias and Crimber battle for world titles.

Teams standouts: Brady Fielder, Sandro Batista

Each year, the PBR Team Series features a few surprise superstars that make names for themselves. While Brady Fielder and Sandro Batista had both previously been established on the Unleash The Beast, this last season was a coming-out party for each of them.

Fielder has been around since 2019, focusing on the UTB for the first time in 2022 and finishing the season ranked No. 27. He skipped the 2023 UTB season but competed for the Texas Rattlers and helped them to the 2023 PBR Teams Championship. In 2024, he became the first Australian to win a UTB event since 2015 and finished the year ranked No. 8 in the UTB world standings.

Nothing to sneeze at, but Fielder truly broke out for the Rattlers in 2024. He won the inaugural Great 8 award, given to the rider with the highest riding percentage with at least 20 outs, after going a stunning 26-for-37 (70%). He also finished second to Crimber in the MVP race by just two rides. If he keeps it up, he could very well be in the world title hunt come May.

Speaking of MVP award contenders, Batista finished right behind Fielder at No. 3. Shocking, as he finished higher than his Kansas City Outlaws teammate and reigning World Champion Cassio Dias, who was expected to be the unequivocal star of the Outlaws. Batista also only has two UTB seasons under his belt after missing the entire 2024 season due to injury. While he’s always been a solid rider in PBR Teams, this season saw him go a whopping 23-for-35 (65%).

Is this the real Sandro Batista? If so, he could make things very, very interesting atop the UTB World Championship standings.

Legends: Jose Vitor Leme, Kaique Pacheco, Sage Kimzey

We’re just going to reiterate it: Jose Vitor Leme has won a major title each year since 2020 – world titles in 2020-21, PBR Teams MVP awards in 2022-23, and the PBR Teams Championship with the Austin Gamblers in 2024. He’s one of the best riders the PBR has ever seen, and when he’s healthy, he still gets our vote as the best bull rider on earth.

Of course, the key with Leme is his health. He hasn’t competed a full UTB season since 2021, missing significant time each of the last three seasons due to injury. In 2024, he competed in just six UTB events before doctoring out of the rest of the season to finally heal up. However, he was back in form for the Gamblers, going 25-for-37 (67%) en route to his first Teams title and finishing fourth in the MVP race. If he can put up those numbers for a full UTB season, look out.

We’ve also got our eyes on Leme’s Gamblers teammate, Kaique Pacheco. The 2018 World Champion finished No. 9 in the 2024 world title race after a disappointing season, but we’re not ready to count Pacheco out: since 2015, when he won Rookie of the Year, Pacheco has finished No. 2 in the world four times and No. 3 once. This past Teams season, he went 19-for-33 (57%), so he’s still got the chops to make noise in the world title race.

Then there’s seven-time PRCA bull riding world champion Sage Kimzey, fresh off a strong season for the Carolina Cowboys. Kimzey notched a 50% riding percentage as the Cowboys made it to the championship game and, while his debut UTB season was disappointing and riddled with injury, he won the PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast – Championship to jump to No. 7 in the standings. Can he put together a full UTB season?

Wildcards: Rogerio Venancio, Ky Hamilton

We’ve got to give some love to a few new faces we could see on tour this year. Rogerio Venancio is the reigning PBR Brazil Champion, and we know how those riders tend to perform in the United States (see also: Cassio Dias, Jose Vitor Leme). Meanwhile, Ky Hamilton has dabbled in PBR events since 2018 but focused on rodeos the last few years, winning the 2023 PRCA bull riding world championship. He’s committed to the PBR this season and recently ran roughshod over the competition at the Minot Y's Men PBR Challenger Series event, finishing first and second on a double entry.

If these two rookies want to make a splash, they’ll have some stiff competition. But after rookies have won the last two world titles, we’re not ruling anything out!

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media