What to Watch For: 5-on-5 standouts set to compete at 2025 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast
The 2025 PBR Teams New Rider Draft is right around the corner, set to invade Austin, Texas, May 20.
By James Youness
FORT WORTH, Texas – By now, we know this is gold buckle season, with all eyes turned towards the three postseason stages separating PBR from crowning its 2025 World Champion.
We also know coaches, front office executives and fans from each of the ten PBR Camping World Team Series squads will be ever-present throughout the most dramatic two weeks of Western Sports, a la the 2025 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast.
And with at least one rider from each of said ten franchises set to give it a go when Thursday rolls around, Cowtown Coliseum is going to jam-packed with interested parties of the sort.
While the Kansas City Outlaws’ Marcus Mast serves as the only man within the final five cowboys invited to the season-culminating showdown, trust us when we say the premier series pack’s original set of 40 contestants is LOADED with talent set to shake up the 5-on-5 landscape once the fourth season of camaraderie-driven action rolls around this summer.
And with the 2025 PBR Teams New Rider Draft right around the corner, set to take place May 20 in Austin, Texas, home of the defending PBR Teams Champion Austin Gamblers, it’s pretty hard not to start shifting gears towards the epic celebrations and endless smiles that await.
In fact, 40 of this weekend’s 45 competing cowboys enter the weekend currently inked to a PBR Teams franchise – Which means the other five have quite the opportunity to show they have what it takes to compete with the best in the world!
Of the original 40 qualified contestants, 39 of them of remain tied to a team, with No. 36 Vinicius Pinheiro Correa the lone man of the bunch both unrostered, yet available in said approaching 2025 PBR Teams New Rider Draft.
A complete breakdown of competing riders’ team affiliations can be found below:
Dalton Kasel – Austin Gamblers Brady Fielder – Texas Rattlers John Crimber – Florida Freedom Sage Steele Kimzey – Austin Gamblers Luciano De Castro – Arizona Ridge Riders Paulo Eduardo Rossetto – Missouri Thunder Cort McFadden – Oklahoma Wildcatters Keyshawn Whitehorse – Arizona Ridge Riders Andrew Alvidrez – Missouri Thunder Kaique Pacheco – Austin Gamblers Clay Guiton – Carolina Cowboys (Recently traded from Oklahoma to Carolina) Leonardo Castro – New York Mavericks Lucas Divino – Austin Gamblers Austin Richardson – Nashville Stampede Eduardo Aparecido – Arizona Ridge Riders Anderson de Oliveira – Nashville Stampede Claudio Montanha Jr. – Texas Rattlers Jose Vitor Leme – Austin Gamblers Alan de Souza – Nashville Stampede Kaiden Loud – Nashville Stampede Sandro Batista – Kansas City Outlaws Dener Barbosa – Austin Gamblers Julio Cesar Marques – Kansas City Outlaws Koltin Hevalow – Kansas City Outlaws Elizmar Jeremias – Florida Freedom Hudson Bolton – New York Mavericks Derek Kolbaba – Carolina Cowboys Daylon Swearingen – Carolina Cowboys Adriano Salgado – Carolina Cowboys Felipe Furlan – Missouri Thunder Joao Ricardo Vieira – Texas Rattlers Daniel Keeping – Texas Rattlers Leandro Zampollo – New York Mavericks Mason Taylor – New York Mavericks Boudreaux Campbell – Missouri Thunder Vinicius Pinheiro Correa – No Team Thiago Salgado – Florida Freedom Dawson Branton – Texas Rattlers (Recently traded from Carolina to Texas) Bruno Carvalho – Arizona Ridge Riders Ethan Winckler – Carolina Cowboys *Bob Mitchell – No Team *Michael Lane – No Team *Marcus Mast – Kansas City Outlaws *Ashton Sahli – No Team *Afonso Quintino – No Team * = Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals qualifier
Naturally, the defending Champs hailing from Austin are headlining the show with a postseason-high six men set to compete within the approaching Eliminations showcase.
The shocking part of the team’s shared dominance within the individual campaign lies around the fact that the Gamblers enter the weekend with three riders ranked in the Top 10 and with all six cowboys ranked within the sport’s Top 22 spots, including the likes of No. 1 Dalton Kasel, No. 4 Sage Steele Kimzey, No. 10 Kaique Pacheco, No. 13 Lucas Divino, No. 18 Jose Vitor Leme and No. 22 Dener Barbosa.
Knowing they dropped the Land.com Texas Cup-deciding shootout against the Texas Rattlers just a few weeks back suggests they’ll be ready to fire on all cylinders, both as a unit and as individuals.
After piecing together one of the most historic regular season runs during the 2024 summer session, the Carolina Cowboys trail Austin by just one rider, set to send five representatives to the Eliminations warm-up slate ahead of what should be another fruitful run in 2025.
A guy like 2022 PBR World Champion No. 28 Daylon Swearingen knows exactly how to show up and show out during the final outs of the season, set to be accompanied by teammates in No. 40 Ethan Winckler, No. 29 Adriano Salgado, No. 27 Derek Kolbaba and No. 11 Clay Guiton (whom the team acquired from the Oklahoma Wildcatters last month).
The only other group of 5-plus comes in the form of this weekend’s currently unrostered talents in Vinicius Pinheiro Correa, Bob Mitchell, Afonso Quintino, Michael Lane and Ashton Sahli.
On quite the opposite side of the spectrum, Cort McFadden will be the lone man rocking brown, blue and white when the opening round dawns, as Guiton was the team’s only other UTB regular who had tied to the Wildcatters.
Each of the league’s other nine teams are preparing to watch at least three of their riders compete inside Cowtown Coliseum, respectively, with the Nashville Stampede, Arizona Ridge Riders, Kansas City Outlaws, Missouri Thunder and Texas Rattlers rostering four riders each as of Wednesday afternoon.
As the only team to sweep their rivals in 3-0 fashion during the inaugural Monster Energy Team Challenge, presented by Camping World, can No. 6 Paulo Eduardo Rossetto (who’s coming off a 3-for-3 performance during his Pendleton Whiskey Velocity Tour Finals-winning effort) and No. 9 Andrew Alvidrez continue making his Head Coach Ross Coleman one of the proudest men on tour?
Meanwhile, No. 5 Luciano De Castro and No. 8 Keyshawn Whitehorse are looking to put the finishing touches on their own standout campaigns. Preparing to go to war with squad mates in veteran No. 15 Eduardo Aparecido and No. 39 Bruno Carvalho, it’s clear fanbases around the country, if not world, have plenty of riders and storylines to root for!
Of course, you don’t have to be a fan of the Florida Freedom to root on 2024 PBR Teams MVP and No. 3 John Crimber. He’s a lean, mean, grinding machine these days, despite his arrival in Fort Worth representing just the young phenom’s second-ever World Finals appearance.
Trailing only two men in the Unleash The Beast standings, he’ll need to start the late-season heroics early on this weekend if he hopes to chip away the 483 UTB points that separate him from the tour’s top dawg in Kasel.
The best part about the first of three postseason stages set to begin Thursday, May 8?
All of the action is available LIVE and FREE on RidePass, PBR’s YouTube and X accounts and PBR’s mobile app, as well as The Cowboy Channel!
FOLLOW ALONG This weekend’s 2025 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast – Eliminations in Fort Worth, Texas, is set to begin Thursday, May 8 at 7:45 p.m. CT as the world’s most talented bull riders prepare to duke it out inside Cowtown Coliseum during the first of four action-packed showcases!
The action will continue Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10 at 7:45 p.m. CT with the second and third rounds, respectively, before the fourth and final slate dawns Sunday, May 11 at 1:45 p.m. CT.
The stream for Eliminations begins Thursday, May 8 at 7:45 p.m. PT. New this year, The Cowboy Channel will also stream the opening four rounds of action, with coverage beginning at 8 p.m. CT.
