Jose Vitor Leme’s 2025 World Title Triumph, Closing Seemingly Insurmountable Deficit, is One of the Greatest Comebacks in Sports

Seven weeks before the 2025 PBR World Finals, Jose Vitor Leme, out nearly half the season due to a broken hand, returned to competition No. 31 in the world 746.5 points behind the top spot. Leme would go on what is considered the most impressive run in PBR history to become the 2025 World Champion, winning by a razor thin margin over Dalton Kasel.

Leme edged Kasel by going 8-for-8 at the Championship tournament in Texas in mid-May. But beyond that rare achievement, what fans may not fully realize is the nearly inconceivable string of high-scoring rides the former Brazilian soccer star knocked down to steal a record-tying third PBR Gold Buckle.

Leme’s run began in Sioux Falls in early April when he returned to competition with four events left in the 2025 regular season. He came back healthy but riding in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout. Leme cashed in 8 of 12 outs (67%) in that span to enter World Finals in 18th place. The former Brazilian soccer star would not be bucked off another bull across both Eliminations and World Finals Championship, sweeping both phases of the tournament at Cowtown Coliseum and AT&T Stadium, respectively.

Inside the home of the Dallas Cowboys, the biggest venue PBR visits, Leme put up the biggest rides. In going 4-for-4 on Championship weekend, he won the first three rounds and tied for first in Round 4. 

Let that sink in: Leme was first in all four rounds on championship weekend, including two 90-point rides.

In the final weekend, one rider could earn a maximum of 756 points. Leme took 734 – 97% of the possible points (done by sweeping all rounds, the final weekend aggregate, and 90-point rides), a performance that will be hard to surpass in the PBR record books.  

“Jose wasn’t just putting up 85’s; he was knocking down huge rides to win round after round at World Finals,” said PBR CEO and Commissioner Sean Gleason. “That’s what it takes to win the title.”

How good was Leme? His World Finals was akin to passing for 600 yards in the Super Bowl or hitting four home runs in Game 7 of the World Series.

With the World Championship on the line, Leme was otherworldly.

It was a Comeback for the Ages. The kind J.B. Mauney mounted twice. Yet, Mauney, who would capture two gold buckles, only won the championship one of those years. 

In 2013, Mauney chased down Silvano Alves with a 6-for-6 World Finals masterpiece—winning four rounds and earning 5,296 points to overcome what had been a 1,062-point deficit. Alves went 5-for-6 at Finals…and still lost the title to Mauney.

In 2014, Mauney again got hot when the lights were brightest, going 5-for-6 in Las Vegas with multiple round wins. But Alves responded with a perfect 6-for-6 to lock down his third title.

In that race, both riders brought their best, aided by the leaders stumbling. No. 1 Joao Ricardo Vieira was not able to compete in the championship tournament due to injury, and No. 2 Fabiano Vieira faltered, coming in 18th place at the Finals event, to finish the season fifth. That opened the door for Alves to tie Adriano Moraes with his third PBR title.

Compare that to this year. Dalton Kasel went 33-for-60 over the regular season with five wins. He led the title race since Palm Desert, six events before World Finals. The championship was within reach. One more point awarded by the judges on the final ride. One more qualified ride. That’s all it would have taken to hold off Leme’s sensational charge.

Kasel’s 3-for-8 showing in Texas – finishing tied for 11th in the Finals event – opened the door for the greatest comeback in Western sports history.

Leme’s dominance when the stakes were highest was staggering. He became the first rider to go 8-for-8 under the Finals format with an Elimination stage leading to World Championship weekend – eclipsing even the high standards set by his own prior Finals masterpieces in 2017 and 2021.

Leme’s perfect record on the rankest bulls in the world stood in sharp contrast to the rest of the field, who went 64 for 252 (25%) during the championship event. The next closest rider, Hudson Bolton, managed six rides.

“Leme stood tall when the pressure was the greatest – on the rankest bulls, under the brightest lights, when the stakes were highest,” Gleason said. “He scored big on every bull. Others didn’t. In sports, PBR is as close as you get to a pure meritocracy. The World Finals points structure shows why.

“But don’t count out Dalton Kasel. He has the heart of a champion and is known as ‘Mr. 90 pointer’. This will likely fuel him to many future world titles.”

What makes the 2025 World Finals so compelling isn’t just Leme’s perfect percentage or jaw-dropping climb to the top. It’s what it reveals about the heart of champions when bull riders hit home runs under enormous pressure.

Since 2012, the No. 1 seed entering World Finals has failed to win the title half the time. PBR’s modern scoring system, adopted in 2015, makes the World Finals the true proving ground where a late-season surge full of big, clutch rides can dethrone a season-long leader.

There’s a reason Reggie Jackson is remembered for October, not May.

“In the end, Leme didn’t just win another title,” Gleason said. “He reminded the sports world that champions shine brightest when their backs are against the wall and the stakes are the highest.”

As Leme scored big on ride after ride, Kasel, his teammate on the Austin Gamblers in the separate PBR Teams league that begins its 2025 season in mid-July, struggled.

Despite flashes of brilliance—including 8th, 4th, and 5th place finishes in individual rounds—his three qualified rides weren’t enough to stave off the surging Leme. In a sport that often comes down to hundredths of the second, this title came down to one bull.

Had Kasel scored just one additional point on his final ride, or converted on one of his five buck-offs, the gold buckle would likely be his.

Instead, he joins a short list of riders who’ve watched titles slip away despite season-long excellence because another rider showed up at World Finals riding in a superhuman fashion.

For one athlete, utter triumph and a place in bull riding lore. For another, abject heartbreak.

And you know what, fans? That’s what makes sports great.