FORT WORTH, Texas – In November of 2020, a 24-year-old named Jose Vitor Leme won the PBR World Championship.

He couldn’t speak fluent English and needed a translator, but outside of AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, he looked toward the future.

“You see, someday I want to be like J.B. (Mauney),” Leme told PBR.com. “People love him. The fans. The 90-point rides. He is the best. There is still so much I want to accomplish. I have always said I wanted to be a World Champion, and if I got that accomplished, I know I want to be a two-time World Champion. But really, I want to be the record-breaker. I want to do something impossible, something nobody has ever done.

“I have that drive. I always want to do better and do the impossible because I know I can do it.”

Four and a half years later, Leme was back at AT&T Stadium for the 2025 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast – Championship.

He’s now 28, a newly minted three-time World Champion, and the record-breaker he always wanted to be. And Mauney was in the locker room to congratulate him.

“You kicked their ass,” Mauney said. “Badass. And I’m glad you’re the $8 million cowboy so they can stop saying that bullshit about me.”

A tongue-in-cheek torch-passing, to be sure, but it looks like there’s a new greatest of all time in town.

THE SETBACK

Leme’s career prior to 2025 has been well-documented, as he’s been the most prolific rider of this generation.

He grew up in Ribas do Rio Pardo, Brazil, and started getting on calves when he was 7 years old. In 2017, he won the PBR Brazil championship before coming to the U.S. in October as the Brazil invite for the Velocity Tour Finals. He went 3-for-4 there to qualify for the 2017 PBR World Finals, where he went 6-for-6 to win the World Finals event title and Rookie of the Year.

Leme finished No. 2 in the world in both 2018 and 2019, falling short to Kaique Pacheco and Jess Lockwood, respectively. But he simply would not be beaten in 2020 and 2021. He put up seven event wins in 2020 and bettered that with eight in 2021 en route to two World Championships.

Leme’s 2021 season is widely considered the greatest in PBR history as he set or tied six records: most 90-point rides in a season (24), most round wins in a season (21), highest-scored qualified ride (98.75 points), highest rider score (50 points), highest average ride score in a season (89.82 points), and most event wins in a season (8, tied with two-time World Champion Justin McBride).

RELATED: By The Numbers: A look at Jose Vitor Leme’s record-breaking 2021 World Championship season

After that, he came back down to earth a bit, finishing 2022 ranked No. 5 in the world after being unable to finish the World Finals due to a groin injury. In 2023, he finished the season ranked No. 2 again, but he missed almost the entire 2024 season due to injury.

Leme has been a force for the Austin Gamblers since being drafted with the No. 1 pick in PBR Teams history in 2022, winning the regular-season MVP awards in 2022 and 2023, and the PBR Teams Championship in 2024.

So there’s been plenty of winning. But due to a few injury-plagued years – there was the groin, the ribs, the groin again – the PBR hadn’t seen the real Jose Vitor Leme since 2022.

For much of 2025, it was looking like the same story. Leme won his first event in almost two years in November at the PBR Ontario, but he was inconsistent as he battled injury. In Pittsburgh at the end of January, he fractured his left hand while attempting Crazy Party in Round 2.

After such a promising start to the season, Leme was back on the shelf, missing two full months of action.

By the time he returned in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in early April, he was ranked No. 31 in the Unleash The Beast standings.

Leme put together a solid April, going 8-for-12 (66.67%) with three Top-10 finishes in four events to conclude the regular season ranked No. 18.

“I have to do a miracle to win this world title,” he said with a good-natured laugh at the PBR Tacoma. “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.

“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.”

THE COMEBACK

Leme entered Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas, for Eliminations with something to prove. For the first time since his debut World Finals in 2017, he was coming into the World Finals on the outside of the world title race rather than right in the thick of it.

But perhaps nobody in PBR history has a World Finals resume equal to Leme’s. From 2017-2023, Leme was a career 29-for-43 (67%) with World Finals event titles in 2017 and 2021, going a perfect 6-for-6 in both of those events.

At Eliminations, Leme kicked things off with 85 points on Whiplash in Round 1 and 87.5 points on Flapjack in Round 2. He then turned in 89.25 points on Triple Aught in Round 3, capping the weekend off with 91.25 points on Pegasus in Round 4.

Not only were his scores getting progressively better, but he also won Eliminations to rocket to No. 6 in the UTB standings ahead of Championship weekend.

“Six? Okay, well, that’s a good spot,” he said at the time. “That means I’m still in the fight. I know that it depends on results, but I’m still there. I’m going to keep fighting.”

Leme took the week to head back to his ranch in Decatur, Texas, tending to his animals and treating it like any normal week.

When the next weekend rolled around, Leme was back in Arlington, Texas, with another Herculean task looming. He was still 623 points behind No. 1 Dalton Kasel and had to win the Championship aggregate to even have a chance to be relevant in the title race.

Leme rounded into form quickly, riding Ugly This for 88.75 points in Round 1 and Oyster Creek Brawler for 90.5 points in Round 2 – good to win both rounds.

“I planned that, going out tonight and winning at least one round,” Leme said with a laugh, adjusting the two round win buckles in his arms. “I got both rounds, so this is amazing for me. That was a better start than I thought, for sure.”

With both Kasel and No. 2 Brady Fielder bucking off both of their bulls, Leme was in prime position to make up ground.

The door was cracked open, and if anyone can take advantage of opportunities like that, it’s Jose Vitor Leme.

Despite arriving to the arena a little late – normal for him, he admits – he quickly got into the zone in a place that already means so much to him.

“When I walked into that arena again, all the memories from my first world title came into my mind,” Leme said. “And I was like, ‘Dang, this energy – it’s different.’ I missed that. Not being able to ride at the Finals last year was kind of upsetting to me. This arena, it’s amazing. It reminds me of everything that I felt on my first title. And for sure, this kind of energy helps you a lot because you feel good, and you feel motivated to ride again.”

While most riders say they don’t pay attention to what anyone else is doing, Leme admits that he was.

“I was doing some math to see what I could do and what I needed to do,” he said. “I was texting some friends in Brazil – a guy, his name is Abner, he’s always talking to me, ‘Hey, you need to get this much points.’”

With those voices in his ear, he attacked.

First was 89.25 points on Lari’s Speck to win Round 3.

Then came a 91-point ride on Walk Hard and the celebration of a lifetime on the dirt. Even though Fielder and Kasel were still to ride, even though Kasel could still sneak away with the world title, for Leme, that was his moment.

“I was like, ‘I got this,’ even if mathematically, Dalton could win,” he said. “Going through all the things that I did this season, even if I didn’t win, that was a win for me – riding all these bulls, getting a 91-point ride, having all those guys celebrating with me. That was a big win for me, because I know I have people around me that really love me and want me to do my job, and that means a lot to me.”

Fielder and Kasel both converted for the first and only time all weekend in the subsequent two outs. Fielder rode Magic Hunter for 91 points, tying Leme.

In the last out of the weekend, Kasel rode Hang ‘em High. If he won the round, he’d earn enough points to win the world title.

The score came in: 90.25 points.

Leme and Fielder split the round win.

And Jose Vitor Leme was a three-time World Champion.

THE HISTORY

There was the celebratory Can-Am ride around the arena. There was his wife, Amanda, and son, Theodoro, joining him on stage. There was the hoisting of the trophy and drinking Monster out of it. There was the acceptance of two big checks – one for the World Finals event title, one for the World Championship – and his third gold buckle.

After a whirlwind half an hour, Leme was still stunned.

When asked how he was feeling, he paused.

“I don’t know,” he finally said, laughing. “It’s so crazy. I’m still – I didn’t have time enough to realize how much I did this weekend. It was an incredible weekend for me. I didn’t expect all this. I expected to win a round or two and win the Finals – that’s what I came for. But I didn’t expect to win the world title, honestly, and win four rounds, be perfect all weekend long. It’s just a blessing.”

With the win, Leme has rewritten the PBR history books.

He’s passed J.B. Mauney as the richest athlete in PBR history with a total of $8,316,766 won. He also set the single-season earnings record in winning $2.15 million in 2025. He matched Mauney’s record of four round wins in a single World Finals.

Leme is the second rider ever to win the World Finals event title three times, joining Robson Palermo (2008, 2011-12).

And he’s the third three-time World Champion, joining Adriano Moraes (1994, 2001, 2006) and Silvano Alves (2011-12, 2014).

Moraes and Alves were both on hand in AT&T Stadium to see another member join their historic club.

“He did a good job, and he worked hard for this,” Alves said. “He knows how hard he worked this season for this moment. I’m proud of him. He’s one of the best bull riders in the world. He proved to himself he can do it, and congratulations to him. It’s not easy. There’s only three guys now.”

Moraes was even stronger in his opinions.

“He is the greatest bull rider ever,” Moraes said. “And I’m not blowing confetti.”

Moraes was the inaugural PBR World Champion and has seen the sport and the league grow for more than 30 years. He’s been waiting for other riders to reach the pinnacle, and Leme doing so was not a surprise.

Moraes is also the Director of Brazil Operations for the Austin Gamblers, for whom Leme competes in PBR Teams. Between the roster and the coaching staff, the Gamblers have won eight PBR World Championships, plus seven PRCA bull riding world titles.

“I knew it was coming,” Moraes said. “I didn’t know when, but I knew it was going to come. But it’s still very short of what he’s going to do. Records are made to be broken, but he’s going to set records that are going to be pretty close to impossible to break. That’s what he said a few years back, and he said, ‘With all due respect to all the World Champions, I’m going to set records that, a hundred years from now, people will remember.’ And he is on that way, and I believe he can do it, and I’m so glad that he’s the person that’s doing it.

“He’s the greatest already. Now, it’s just a matter of sitting and watching to see how much better he can be, how much farther he can go. The sky’s the limit. He already proved it. I mean, there’s no such thing as impossible for that guy.”

Moraes points out that, in 1997, Michael Gaffney – coincidentally, the head coach of the Gamblers – had an incredible late-season comeback of his own to win the world title. But Leme’s was in far less time and, in Moraes’s eyes, that much more impressive.

“Winning a title is one thing, but how you win is most important, and he did it in a way that I don’t think none of us from the past could have done,” Moraes said. “Michael at least had a time, you know? But he didn’t. He had two weekends. So to me, it’s the greatest accomplishment in bull riding history. Not just PBR history, but bull riding worldwide.”

The fact that Leme was injured for so long made the historic comeback possible, but it was also a huge variable. There was no guarantee that he’d be able to return to his prior level of riding after being hurt, and the fact that he didn’t miss a beat is a testament to his championship mentality.

“Every time when you get an injury, you don’t know how you’re going to come back,” Leme said. “But I always work so hard to be better, to get better and do what I normally do, that I knew I was going to come back stronger. And even if it hurts, if I’m riding, I will do my job. I’m not going to be in here fighting against any crazy things. But if I’m healthy, I’m going to be here, fighting for a title every time.”

It’s that attitude that has Leme sitting a cut above the rest, in his own stratosphere of PBR success.

In the next season or two, he’s likely to break the record for most career 90-point rides (he has 87, while Chris Shivers holds the record with 94) and hit 400 qualified rides in his career (he’s currently at 359), which only 10 other men have ever done.

And that’s just if he has a few average seasons.

Jose Vitor Leme does not settle for average.

When asked what’s next, he smiles.

“Just keep winning,” Leme said. “I’m going to go for a fourth, for sure. I’m going to keep trying. That’s what motivates me to keep going. If I don’t have any dream to keep winning, there’s no reason to be here.”

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media