FORT WORTH, Texas – With the 2025 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast – Eliminations just eight days away, kicking off on May 8 in Fort Worth, Texas, all eyes are on the world title race centering on No. 1 Dalton Kasel, No. 2 Brady Fielder, No. 3 John Crimber and No. 4 Sage Steele Kimzey.

But those top riders may end up feeling some pressure from well outside the Top 10.

Two-time World Champion Jose Vitor Leme sits at No. 18, and he’s not content to just write his season off.

After being sidelined for all of February and March with a broken hand, Leme is back in business.

“I’ve been doing good, getting better every week,” he said. “My hand is feeling better. After I came back from the injury, I had some struggles trying to ride with the hand hurting. And right now, I’m on my best moment after injury. So I’m feeling good. My hand, the swelling is going down. Now I’m able to squeeze and hold a little bit more in my rope, so everything is fine. I’m feeling good riding. I just want to try and get as many points that I can because I was out for so long and I lost too many opportunities to be in the Top 5. But I’m just trying to catch up.”

Leme returned to action in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in early April and has been on a tear all month. Ranked No. 31 upon his return, he’s since rattled off three Top-10 finishes in four events, including two Top-5s, and has gone 8-for-12 (66.7%).

All told, he’s earned 206.5 points towards the standings in his last four events, allowing him to climb 13 spots in the Unleash The Beast standings.

Not a bad month of work.

But this is new territory for Leme. In addition to his two World Championships (2020-21, he’s finished No. 2 in the world three times (2018-19, 2023). He was No. 5 in 2022, when he doctored out of the World Finals with a rib injury, and No. 7 in his debut in 2017. That year, he needed just two events on U.S. soil – the Velocity Tour Finals and the World Finals – to reach the Top 10 and win Rookie of the Year.

The only time Leme has ever finished outside the Top 10 in the standings was 2024, when he competed in just six events before sitting out the rest of the season due to injury.

Let’s digest that: in eight seasons, only once has Leme finished outside the Top 10 of the world. That’s a stat that’s honestly hard to compute, but it’s a testament to the otherworldly talent Leme exhibits when healthy.

This will be the first time since 2017 that Leme enters the World Finals outside the title race and with something to prove. He won the World Finals event title that year, and, well, the rest of the locker room should be concerned.

“There’s definitely more motivation, I think, for me, because I’m behind,” Leme said. “I have to do the best I can to win, to get in the Top 5 again, and have a real chance to win. So I’m more motivated now, for sure, than the other years that I was in the Top 5 or Top 10. That was more, ‘alright, just keep doing what you’re doing.’ But right now, I have to do better than I was doing. I have to give 200% of me, of my body, of my abilities, to keep this dream awake. But I still believe it. I still think that I can do something different. I still think that I can win the Finals and change the whole game. So if there’s still chances, I will still fight, for sure.”

A Leme more motivated than he was to win his two world titles? That’s a frightening prospect, considering he’s already one of the best in history when it comes to World Finals.

At the season-culminating event, Leme is a career 29-for-43 (67%) with two World Finals event titles.

Also of note: he won his first World Finals event title in 2017. His next one came four years later, in 2021. Can he win another one after another four years, in 2025?

Leme certainly hopes so.

“That means a lot,” he said. “That means that I finish in the top riders in the world, and I still need to pass the Eliminations. I want to be in Arlington at AT&T with real chances to win and real chances to get the whole thing and make history again.”

Indeed, only the Top 15 in the standings at the end of Eliminations on May 8-11 advance directly to the Championship on May 17-18 in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

If Leme is unable to climb into the Top 15, he’ll compete in Ride For Redemption on May 14-15, from which the Top 5 riders in the aggregate will advance to the Championship to complete the 20-man field.

Leme has never battled through the new Finals format before, so only time will tell if his prior successes translate in this new era.

He’ll need a Herculean effort to win gold buckle No. 3, but with more than a thousand points up for grabs, it’s still technically possible.

And if anyone can do it, it’s Leme.

“I have to do a miracle to win this world title,” Leme said with a laugh. “But I still believe it. I’m still hungry for it. I’m trying my best to finish because I really believe that everything can be changed in the Finals because there are so many points in there. I still have a chance, so I’ve just got to do my job and finish strong.”

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media