What to Watch For: World’s best bull riders rested and ready to roll for 2025 UTB opener
If you've missed the best bull riders in the world, we've got good news for you.
By James Youness
FORT WORTH, Texas – That void you’ve been looking to fill? We feel it too.
Sure, sports fans have several “other” options to catch up on since last seeing the world’s best bull riders duke it out at the 2024 PBR Teams Championship inside T-Mobile Arena.
Between another spicy season of National Football League (NFL) parity, the return of on-ice action in the National Hockey League (NHL) or the stunning fashion and bright lights of the National Basketball Association (NBA), there’s plenty to check the box. It just doesn’t feel the same.
Even with tons of college football, hell, even college basketball on the slate now … there are plenty of options to get by. But that’s exactly what we’ve been doing as the Western sports industry awaits this weekend’s 2025 Unleash The Beast season debut in sunny Tucson, Arizona: Getting by.
And while it’s been fun watching our friends north of the border sort out some National Finals affairs, eventually seeing Arizona Ridge Riders’ standout Nick Tetz win his second title a week after PBR Australia crowned Boston Leather its 2024 Champ, bull riding as a whole didn’t stop.
But damn are we ready to see the likes of Cassio Dias, John Crimber, Jose Vitor Leme and company get back in the chutes and begin their respective grinds for a world title – something only PBR’s stateside premier series can offer.
The biggest takeaway and overall positive sentiment about the organization’s nearly month-long break?
Most guys (outside those who have stayed loose at various international or Touring Pro Division warm-ups) have been allotted some time for some good old fashioned TLC.
Whether that means flying home to Brazil for a few weeks to spend time with family and sort out Visa affairs for the upcoming calendar year or simply kicking back in the heart of Texas taking care of stock and tending to the land, it’s meant a few less head-to-head sessions with the most advanced of bovine athletes on the planet.
The riders themselves may not enjoy time away from top-tier reps and the challenge that comes along with each 8-second quest. But we have a feeling their bodies, and wives, were certainly glad to have a bit of a down period for a while.
Of course, with Unleash The Beast World Championship points available for the first time this season as the tour prepares to invade Tucson Arena for another star-studded start, it’s time to pack up the bag, catch a flight and get back to business.
Competitors have likely spent the last week or two ramping activity back up, which is a wise approach knowing they’re returning to the dirt faced against said 1,600-plus lb. talent. Be it practice bulls, video review sessions, chats with fellow riders or even PRB Teams coaches or other mental and physical exercises, it hasn’t been an easy month of “offseason” leisure by any means.
Especially if you live pretty close to your 5-on-5 mentors, something Dias and several of his Kansas City Outlaws have the opportunity to experience.
And if you thought J.W. Hart and Guilherme Marchi played a roll in their all-star’s 2024 World Championship run, we can’t WAIT to see what they’ve got in store for Dias, Sandro Batista, Koltin Hevalow and company this time around, who ended their productive summers with respective Top 10 placements in the 2024 PBR Teams MVP race en route to helping the squad capture its first-ever PBR Teams regular season honors.
Which is something we expected from the reigning World Champion in Dias, no doubt.
But the other two rocking the Outlaws crest? Not so much.
Hevalow, who turned in a career-best No. 10 finish last year via a fruitful 22-for-68 slate, wasn’t as surprising, as we saw the 21-year-old take the next step in his career by staying consistent and confident. Recording his first premier series 90-pointer over the summer, he’s surely trending in the right direction and should be a sincere threat to compete again in 2025.
However for Batista, who logged just TWO individual outs throughout the entire 2024 season (a pair of outs during a Stockyards Showcase back in July), he was saving up his stuff for his summer squad. Which ended up proving several dividends for both his team and the cowboy himself, as he not only led the Outlaws in conversions with a flashy 22-for-33 slate but earned himself a spot during the quickly approaching UTB season via his standout efforts.
Finishing No. 3 in the MVP standings, trailing only MVP John Crimber and Great 8 Award-winner Brady Fielder, the Brazilian reminded fans and riders alike just how capable he is of making a run.
Speaking of skilled international talents, 2024 PBR Brazil Champion Rogerio Venancio is primed to make his premier series debut this weekend in Tucson after initially stamping his PBR passport with his first stateside action at the 2024 Challenger Series Championship.
If that seems like dancing around and claiming the 2025 season could belong to any rider who can stay healthy and hungry, that’s exactly the sentiment this time around.
Pack veterans watched on as the 2024 “Year of the Rookie” class welcomed endless youthful talents to the circuit. Those first-year kids? They’re not the freshest crop on the block anymore.
And with PBR Brazil, PBR Australia and plenty of Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour come-ups just weeks away from potentially making the premier series cut themselves, to say this thing isn’t wide open right now would be downright lying.
At the same time, safe money says Crimber, Dias or Leme have the best current odds of getting the job done based on both their historic track record and blazing hot success lately.
We’re not counting out the likes of Brady Fielder, Dalton Kasel, Kaique Pacheco, Sage Steele Kimzey, Eduardo Aparecido, Kaiden Loud and friends who have starred on the biggest stage before. We’re simply saying they’ll need to collect some early-season points if they want to keep up the circuit’s top dawgs.
Knowing how dramatic last year’s 2024 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast – Championship showdown inside AT&T Stadium was, with less than 239 points eventually separating Dias and Crimber, means guys need to be riding like it’s May starting in November should they hope to keep their name in the hat by the time the circuit takes over Jerry World once more.
So, be sure to tune into this weekend’s PBR Tucson action beginning Friday night at 6:30 p.m. MT, with all of the season-opener’s outs airing via RidePass on Pluto TV, PBR’s YouTube channel, PBR’s mobile app and PBR’s app on connected TVs, including Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku and Google TV.
