Locker Room Reaction: Riders Praise Leme and Woopaa for Monumental, Record-Setting Ride of 97.75 Points
By: Justin Felisko
TULSA, Okla. – 2020 Rookie of the Year Boudreaux Campbell had hoped he would be the one to re-write the record books a few days ago when he matched up against YETI No. 1 bull Woopaa at Last Cowboy Standing.
Campbell wasn’t complaining, though, after riding Woopaa for 95.25 points as he went on to win a $20,000 ride score bonus, and a total of $46,520.71, in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The 22-year-old then knew when he saw Leme matched up against Woopaa in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the PBR Express Ranches Classic, presented by Pit Boss, that something special may occur between two of the top athletes in the sport on Saturday night.
Sure enough, Campbell was not wrong.
Leme went on to ride Woopaa for a PBR-record setting 97.75 points, and the marquee ride sent the back of the bucking chutes inside the BOK Center, and the majority of the locker room, into a state of euphoria.
“Oh, it was awesome,” said Campbell, who went on to win the regular event in Tulsa on Sunday afternoon. “I didn’t know how Woopaa was going to perform, better or worse coming from Cheyenne. He got better. I wish I could have been a few more points. Leme was awesome. It don’t get much better than that. If you are a fan of bull riding, that should make the hair stand up on the back of your neck because it was that good.”
Many have wondered if/when a rider could surpass the previous PBR record of 96.5 points, which was pulled off by three different riders – Bubba Dunn (Promise Land), Chris Shivers (Jim Jam & Little Yellow Jacket and Michael Gaffney (Little Yellow Jacket) – for a combined four times.
Gaffney was the last rider to be 96.5 points, 17 years ago in Nampa, Idaho.
RELATED: Dunn and Gaffney tip their hats to Jose Vitor Leme
The majority of the riders in the locker room expected Leme and Woopaa to be capable of setting a new all-time score, but there was an immediate reaction of shock and awe of what just happened inside the arena once the score was actually announced by in-arena announcer Matt West.
2019 Rookie of the Year Dalton Kasel expected greatness, but he was still stunned.
“I didn’t scream. I didn’t move. I didn’t cheer him on. I didn’t do anything,” Kasel said. “I was just in shock because I was on the chutes and that bull was bucking so hard and Leme just stuck it all over him. I was just in awe the whole time about it. I was irritated they only gave Leme 49.75 points for (his rider score) because he deserved to be 50.”
Ezekiel Mitchell was on the chutes saying, “Hand him the record books!”
Mitchell said, “You can’t ask one to buck much harder and you can’t ask a guy to ride any better. That was a picture-perfect ride. I don’t know what else to say.”
2020 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour champion Mason Taylor joked the judges should just let Leme give himself whatever score he wanted.
“Man, I was just tickled to death for Jose,” Taylor said. “That was some of the coolest bull riding I got to watch and witness. I was literally in the next bucking chute down and when he went to blowing up right there I went to grinning and throwing my hands in the air saying give him the books.”
2016 World Champion Cooper Davis would have won the 15/15 Bucking Battle with his 90.5-point ride on Born to Sin moments earlier, but the night simply belonged to Leme.
“I said last week I thought Boudreaux’s was the best ride I had ever seen, and that little bull was even stronger this time,” Davis said. “Jose finished maybe a touch better. For a bull that doesn’t throw anybody off, he sure does make it look tough. It is well-deserved.
“Leme is definitely on a hot steak. There are very, very few holes in his game.”
Davis and 2013 Rookie of the Year Joao Ricardo Vieira are attempting to battle Leme for the 2021 world title, and neither have attempted Woopaa just yet.
Vieira said he wants his shot someday.
“That bull is so good. It is my dream to ride him,” the 37-year-old said.
Leme is attempting to become only the second rider in PBR history to win back-to-back world titles, and his monstrous ride on Woopaa helped him leave Tulsa with a season-high 410.5-point lead on No. 2 Kaique Pacheco in the world standings.
The Unleash The Beast next heads to Sacramento, California, for next weekend’s three-day Wrangler Long Live Cowboys Classic.
Silvano Alves, the only man to win consecutive world titles, said he has enjoyed watching Leme continue to make his mark on the sport.
“It is so much fun watching him ride,” Alves said. “Every single ride with Woopaa is very different style for riding, and Wooppa bucks different each night. Sometimes he is more higher and sometimes he goes back and forth. He is a really good bull, and they were both really good. I am so happy for them. I have never seen 97 points before at a rodeo. This is great for the PBR and the fans.”
Young gun Brazilian riders Mauricio Moreira, 22, and Thiago Salgado, 19, both commended Leme on the historic ride.
Moreira said there will be many riders in their native country inspired to see a Brazilian rider pick up a score of that magnitude.
The previous highest-scored ride on the premier series by a Brazilian-born rider was 2010 World Champion Renato Nunes’ 95.75 points on Chicken on a Chain at the 2008 event in St. Louis, Missouri.
I think the score was a little too much, but it was not Jose’s fault,” Moreira said with the help of Paulo Crimber translating. “It was phenomenal. This is great for the Brazilian riders to see a score like that for us. It shows we are good bull riders. We are here to win. We are here to work. We are here to do our best. That was great.”
Salgado was right there on the chutes watching Leme every step of the 8-seconds, and he put it bluntly.
“Jose Vitor Leme is Superman,” Salgado said with help of Crimber. “I have always looked up to him. TO now be riding with him, not against him, and have his support is just amazing.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
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