What to Watch For: Unleash The Beast regular season finale brings frantic finish to Tacoma
Can No. 3 John Crimber keep himself in the gold buckle conversation with a big win April 26-27?
By James Youness
FORT WORTH, Texas – There are only a certain number of points available to riders once the tour shifts gears from the regular season slate to postseason mode, which for the sport of bull riding takes the form of the 2025 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast.
For the sake of keeping some potential dreams and narratives alive, we won’t specify just how many points.
But you can bet your butt guys that want to be within striking distance of No. 1 Dalton Kasel will be riding their asses off come Saturday when the PBR Tacoma prepares to extract the finishing touches of what’s become quite the dramatic 2025 premier series campaign.
With “Mr. 90 Point” bringing a whopping 1240 points into the approaching Week 23 contest, he’s got a 187-point advantage over No. 2 Brady Fielder, who paced the pack during quite the midseason run, but continues to trail the man who recently claimed his fifth title of the season last weekend in Nampa, Idaho.
Knowing Fielder would need to sweep all three rounds of competition this weekend alongside capturing the event title in order to surpass the Muleshoe, Texas, native means the fresh-toothed cowboy will likely hold the honors heading into next month’s 2025 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast – Eliminations.
At the same time, fans should be well aware than Fielder sat atop the UTB perch for an eight-week, midseason stretch. All while piecing together one of the longer consecutive ride streaks the tour has witnessed in a while (12-straight qualified rides), regularly turning heads in the process.
So, if Kasel is being compared to last season’s Cassio Dias, then we’d be hard-pressed not to consider Fielder as this year’s John Crimber hopeful, who will look to chase down the red-hot pack leader beginning Saturday night in Tacoma.
For as excited as Fielder will be for his head-to-head showdown against No Socks as he looks to build some early-event momentum, Kasel will be granted the same 8-second opportunity to keep his own run alive aboard Devine Dan. Considering he’s climbed atop the shark cage following four of the tour’s last seven showcases, we definitely can’t rule out a scenario where Kasel is adding to his lead.
Especially knowing Fielder went a rare 0-for-2 last weekend in Nampa, now just 1-for-5 across his past two appearances. Yet, knowing Fielder continues to lead the tour in overall conversions courtesy of his 37-for-58 (63.79%) slate, we have to believe the only man riding above the 60% mark has one of the best shots to make the 8 under the bright lights.
And while the then-rookie version of No. 3 John Crimber served as quite the threat in 2024, he’s got even more potential and experience this time around.
Just 293.5 UTB points back from Fielder and 480.5 behind Kasel, the young phenom understands he has an intense hill to climb should he want to pull off an epic comeback after leading the circuit during the first nine sessions of the season.
It may have been a while back now, but the run was one week longer than Fielder’s time atop the pack and nearly double the time Kasel has enjoyed.
We know he’s capable of making a run – But if he wants said run to end with what would be his first-ever gold buckle, he needs to start the postseason crank-up this weekend in Tacoma during his opening round dance with Faded Dreams.
As we continue thinking back to last year’s season-culminating showdown inside Jerry World, it’s really a trio of standout efforts that come to mind.
Sure, Dias and his trophy-claiming efforts in general. Throw in Crimber’s rather-rank 95-pointer atop Big Bank and that pretty much sums it up.
Outside the showcase’s eventual event champion in Sage Steele Kimzey, that is, who used his first appearance at the end-all, be-all finale to secure himself a No. 7 finish during his explosive rookie season.
He might be a bit banged up but he continues to show up for work and punch the clock with the best of them.
With four-consecutive Top 16 efforts to his name (16th, 13th, 14th, 12th), he’s been staying the course as he nurses some bumps and bruises – and will look to do the same during his opening round dance with Blowhard.
And for as welcome as a productive weekend in Tacoma would be for his odds of chasing down Kasel and company, perhaps the best outcome for the seven-time PRCA Champion involves him exiting without any additional red flags.
The two weeks which separate the tour from invading Cowtown Coliseum May 8-11 will cruise by in a flash. But if there’s a contender who could really use a brief break before giving his all, it’s Kimzey.
As of this week, we’ll roughly draw a line underneath No. 6 Paulo Eduardo Rossetto (690.25 UTB points) when it comes to realistic 2025 PBR World Champions, as he and his fellow Brazilian in No. 5 Luciano De Castro (691.83 UTB points) remain within two points of each other on the big board.
Of course, there’s nothing sexy about the idea of needing 550+ UTB points in order to close the gap between themselves and the tour-leader. Rather, the deficit paints the picture of just how important winning rounds and event titles has been for Kasel. And, straight up, how dominant he’s been.
That’s not to rule out the likes of No. 7 Andrew Alvidrez (587.75 UTB points), No. 8 Kaique Pacheco (565 UTB points), No. 9 Cort McFadden (563.08 UTB points), No. 10 Clay Guiton (532.5 UTB points) and No. 11 Keyshawn Whitehorse (505 UTB points) by any means.
However, each of said cowboys would need to essentially double the points they’ve accumulated over the tour’s first 22 events during these final three to four opportunities.
Beginning Saturday night.
So, for now, the safe money remains on the Top 4, with outside shots possible for guys like Rossetto (who’s set to miss this weekend’s regular season finale) and Castro.
With dozens of action-packed matchups set to bless the slate throughout the opening Round, fans can tune in LIVE and FREE Saturday night to see how the end-game race plays out within the stunning Northwest region!
This weekend’s PBR Tacoma in Tacoma, Washington, is set to begin Saturday, April 26 at 6:45 p.m. PT as the best bull riders in the world prepare for battle within Tacoma Dome.
The action will conclude Sunday, April 27 at 1:45 p.m. MT with the second round, followed by the short go, as riders look to capture crucial late-season UTB points in the race for the 2025 PBR World Championship.
All three rounds of action in Tacoma will be available LIVE and FREE via RidePass on Pluto TV, PBR’s YouTube channel, PBR’s mobile app, PBR’s app on connected TVs, including Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku, and Google TV, as well as on your favorite web browser at watch.pbr.com. The stream for PBR Tacoma begins Saturday, April 26 at 7 p.m. PT.
CBS Television Network will air this weekend’s Monster Energy Team Challenge, presented by Camping World, matchup between the Florida Freedom and New York Mavericks Sunday, April 27 at 9:30 a.m. PT. Fans can keep an eye on PBR.com and @PBR social media channels for the latest news, scores, wrecks and more!
