2025 World Champion José Vitor Leme sustained a tendon injury during the PBR Billings event, and will sit out in Tacoma in preparation for the World Finals.
The PBR World Finals is just around the corner. A World Champion will be crowned soon. There is one more stop of the Unleash the Beast tour because the best professional bull riders in the world head to Fort Worth Texas to compete on one of bull ridings biggest stages.
Among the best is José Vitor Leme. He is a three time PBR World Champion and a fan favorite. The Brazilian cowboy won world titles in 2020 and 2021 before most recenetly adding his third in 2025. Leme also holds the highest scored ride in PBR history when he was 98.75 points on the bull Woopaa.
As a key factor for the Austin Gamblers team, Leme helped them win back-to-back PBR Teams MVP seasons in 2022 and 2023 and a 2024 PBR Teams Championship. Since his break out year in 2017, he has consistency been one of the greatest to play the game.
During the Championship round in Billings, Montana Leme sustained a serious injury. After further evaluation he was told it was a tendon injury. The best course of treatment is rest.
Although the timing is not ideal with the World Finals so soon, Leme had already locked in his spot in Fort Worth. With this being said, sitting out of the Tacoma event this weekend made the most sense, giving him time to recover.
This weekends event in Tacoma, Washington is the final one of the regular season. This means that World Finals qualification spots are all the line this weekend. Luckily for José, this injury will not take him out of qualifying. Now the question is, how will this injury effect his World Finals preparation and performance?
The tendon that was injured is in his leg, with bruising and pain through his quad, hamstring, and groin. All of these muscles are incredibly important for an athlete who has to stay on a powerful bull for 8 seconds. Although there is concern, if anyone will bounce back in no time, it would be Leme.
He has pushed through injuries time and time again, like many professional rodeo athletes do. One of the major concerns for fans was a previous injury that José suffered. Leme missed a large portion of the 2024 Unleash The Beast season due to a recurring groin and core muscle injury. Although this looks to be completely separate, the risks of old injuries flaring up is always there.
José Victor Leme has a history of dominating at the World Finals. His very first year, 2017, he put together a very impressive 6 for 6 qualified rides. He is nearing 9 million dollars in career earnings, and doing so before his 30th birthday.
While José rests and heals this weekend, the guys will compete in Tacoma to finalize the World Finals roster. Then those top bull riders in the world will come together to put on a show in Fort Worth, Texas.