Monster Energy's Bull Riders Finish in Top 10
Bull Riders, John Crimber and Jose Vitor Leme, had top performance to date in Sioux Falls event and still hope to impact this year's world title race.
In a weekend in which the Monster Energy bull riders collectively had their top performing event of 2025, a pair of riders — teenage sensation John Crimber and two-time PBR World Champion Jose Vitor Leme (2020, 2021) — reminded fans and fellow riders alike they plan to impact this year’s world title race.
Crimber finished fourth in the average and is now third in the world standings, while Leme finished the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, event seventh in the average after missing the past month with a small broken bone in his riding left hand.
“I just miss all this,” said Leme, who feels the three-remaining regular-season elite PBR events — Billings, Montana; Nampa, Idaho; and Tacoma, Washington — will provide him with enough of an opportunity to position himself for a run at a record-tying third gold buckle.
“I miss being on the spot that I am now—riding bulls and doing what I do. I prepare myself for this moment—I’m just so happy to do what I panned for.”
Leme looked like his old self with 88.5 points on Washita Red in the opening round of the three-day elite, televised event, and a second 88.5-point effort on Hoka Hey in the third round on Sunday afternoon.
Daylon Swearingen, the 2022 PBR World Champion, won the opening round with 90.5 on Lari’s Speck. It was only his second round-win of the season and, surprisingly, his first 90-plus point score of the season.
Crimber won round two with 89.5 on In My Blood and split second with 88.5 in round three. Crimber was then 88 in the Championship Round on Lights Out.
“I think I need to just keep doing my job and not relying on anybody else,” said Crimber, who has noticeably improved his conversion rate on bulls away from his riding hand. “You gotta ride ‘em all.”
He added, “I can control what I do, but I can’t control what anybody else is going to do. I’m just going to keep riding them bull for bull and see how it plays out, you know.”
In addition to Crimber and Leme, Swearingen finished Sioux Falls in the Top 10.
Swearingen followed up his opening round win with 87.25 points on Bugatti in round two and finished the event two-for-four and was sixth in the average.
Crimber, 3; Derek Kolbaba, 25; Swearingen, 26; and Leme, 30, will be in Billings next week and 2018 World Champion Kaique Pacheco, 11, is expected to return to competition after taking a week off after a rough outing a week earlier, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
This year’s World Finals begin May 8 in Fort Worth, Texas, and conclude May 18 at AT&T Stadium in nearby Arlington.
“It’s a fight for the top,” said the 19-year-old Crimber, who is determined to win his first world title after finishing second as a rookie last season, “and we’re just going to keep going bull for bull, and weekend for weekend.”
