Combat 4 No. 1: In Eugene, Oregon, where he finished in a surprising 12th place, the two-time World Champion and current No. Jose Vitor Leme, the No. 1 rider, finished the weekend without a qualified ride for the first time all season, and the veteran has gone 1-for-5 in his last two appearances. In the interim, no 2 Andrew Alvidrez’s 88.25-point ride on Chiseled, the same bull score and bovine that Leme championed during his previous successful ride, enabled him to finish 12th in L.A. Alvidrez narrowed Leme’s lead in the 2023 World Title race to just 102.5 points thanks to the effort, which earned the Seminole, Texas, native 13 UTB points.
90 times 2: The highest Round 1 score of the 2023 Unleash The Beast season, the No. 91.25 from runner-up Boudreaux Campbell on Shameless, came out of the SoCal Showdown. The rider’s eighth-ranked score is his fifth-best of his career and his second-highest total without being paired with Woopaa (with whom he had three of his best rides in the 2021 UTB season); 95.25, 95.5, and 93.75 points, respectively). Dalton Kasel’s epic performance against WSM’s Time In A Bottle, which scored 90 points, and Campbell’s strong start were the only two 90s in the first round this season. Joao Ricardo Vieira and Bob Mitchell, who defeated Tijuana Two-Step in New York City for identical 90-point rides, were the first pair to score 90 points. They competed against Reba McEntire’s The Hammer. shaming seven-for-eight: Campbell is now 7-for-11 at all levels of competition, including a 77-point ride on PCR 91 at a Touring Pro Division event on February 9 and two qualified rides at each of his last three UTB appearances in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Eugene, Oregon, and Los Angeles, California. After finishing second last weekend and sixth in the PBR Kubota Emerald Chute Out, where he has earned a combined 141.5 UTB points and $33,366 in winnings, he now has a pair of Top 10 finishes to his name after going 6-for-10 on the premier series.
Mr. 90 Rewards: Kasel almost doubled down on his explosive start this past weekend when he scored 90 points in the first round. However, he fell just.25 points short of reaching the elite mark twice in two attempts. Kasel held on to win his first event of the season in Round 2 on Kid Knapper, earning an 89.75-point victory over Campbell, who would go on to finish in second place. In addition to finishing first in two 15/15 Bucking Battles, he has earned 116 UTB points as the young rider has moved up to No. 1, earning him the reputation he has developed recently for achieving the coveted point mark. 4 in the rankings of Unleash The Beast. As the native of Muleshoe, Texas, continues to prepare for his competitions against elite bovine talent, four of his 14 qualified rides this year have achieved the 90-point threshold.
26: Chateau Montelena’s Montana Jacket won the event with a 45.25-point bull score that he earned by defeating Dener Barbosa in 3.39 seconds in a championship round matchup on a weekend in which the animal athletes prevailed, surrendering a combined 26 qualified rides through three rounds of action inside Crypto.com Arena. Since the premier series stopped in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on February 10-11, there were only 26 qualified rides at an event this season. In Duluth, Georgia, on January 20 and 21, the tour saw its lowest total of combined qualified rides (23), while the PBR Albany Invitational in Albany, New York, produced the most successful rides thus far this season (40).
Top 10: Barbosa’s 2-for-3 performance in Los Angeles resulted in a UTB season-best third place finish despite hearing the dinner bell ring frequently recently. He won the first round by beating Gangster Time by 86.25 points. He then beat The Right Stuff by 85.25 points to advance to the short round, but he couldn’t beat his opponent in the championship round. Regardless, the bronze finish earned the 28-year-old 64 UTB points and a check for $10,200. His best finish in the premier series since finishing as runner-up at the PBR Monster Energy Invitational in Indianapolis, Indiana, on January 1, 2022, is in the Top 3. Now ranked number 19: He’ll try to improve on his season-long ride percentage of 42.3%.
Off for Three Weeks: Since there was ample time for potential rust to have formed, No. 7 overall Daniel Keeping returned to action in Los Angeles after resting for three weeks after being injured in Indianapolis on January 28. He beat Ghost of Oscar for 85 points in Round 1, but he did not appear to be sluggish. Despite being defeated by Magic Moves in his second attempt, which took 4.86 seconds, Keeping was still able to place 13th in the competition and earn 12 UTB points. After suffering an injury on Saturday in Los Angeles while playing Ho-Pac, Keeping is now just 8.5 points behind the leader of the 2023 Rookie of the Year race, Rafael Jose de Brito. He is currently leading the race. Keeping will also try to stay healthy.
Round 1 of this weekend’s action at Little Rock, Arkansas’ Simmons Bank Arena is scheduled to begin on Friday, March 3 at 7:45 p.m. Central Standard Time and can be watched on RidePass on Pluto TV. The second round and the short go championship round will end on Saturday, March 4 at 6:45 p.m. CST. On Sunday, March 5, at 7 p.m. CST, you can watch them on CBS Sports Network. As the 2023 Unleash The Beast season continues, fans can keep an eye on PBR.com and PBR social media channels throughout the weekend for the most recent wrecks, top scores, and other information!