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<\/a><\/p>\nLeme entered Anaheim with a league-record 12 straight qualified rides and 1,328.85 aggregate points to Rossetto\u2019s 1,233.05. By Sunday afternoon, Leme still held first place. Almost everything around him had changed.<\/p>\n
The three-time PBR World Champion \u2014 2020, 2021 and 2025 \u2014 opened Friday by covering Young Buck for 86.80 points in Austin\u2019s 263.30-172.25 victory over New York, extending his record to 13 straight.<\/p>\n
Rossetto answered almost immediately. The Missouri Thunder standout covered Fury for 90.75 points as Missouri overwhelmed the defending PBR Teams Champion Carolina Cowboys 272.65-89.50. It was Rossetto\u2019s 11th consecutive qualified ride in PBR Teams competition, continuing a streak that had developed alongside Missouri\u2019s climb through the standings.<\/p>\n
Rossetto is the only bull rider in Western sports history to consistently compete ambidextrously, switching riding hands based on the direction he expects a bull to turn. Whether the matchup favors left or right, Rossetto can put that hand in the rope and work into it \u2014 a weapon no other rider has consistently brought to the sport at this level.<\/p>\n
The weekend turned Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Leme was matched with Chewy. One night after pushing his PBR Teams record to 13 consecutive qualified rides, Leme was on the ground in 4.23 seconds. Chewy earned a 43.40 bull score and ended the hottest riding streak in the league.<\/p>\n
Rossetto did not give anything back. He rode The HONDO for 90.05 points, extending his streak to 12 consecutive qualified rides as Missouri shut out New York 265.30-0. By the end of Saturday, Leme had 1,415.65 aggregate points and Rossetto had 1,413.85.<\/p>\n
The margin had fallen to 1.80.<\/p>\n
Sunday offered Leme the first chance to respond to a buckoff in weeks, and he did. Leme covered OptiWize Rescue Story for 88.45 points as Austin edged Florida 262.90-259.35. It was the 400th qualified ride of his career at PBR\u2019s premier level, moving him to No. 11 on the all-time list.<\/p>\n
The milestone added another line to a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that already included the highest-marked ride in PBR history, three PBR World Championships, back-to-back PBR Teams MVP awards in 2022 and 2023, and Austin\u2019s 2024 PBR Teams Championship, clinched when Leme covered Tijuana Two-Step for 89 points.<\/p>\n
But Sunday belonged just as much to the man chasing him.<\/p>\n
Rossetto covered Me More Cowboy for 87.70 points in Missouri\u2019s 171.85-0 shutout of Texas, extending his streak to 13 consecutive qualified rides and tying Leme\u2019s PBR Teams record.<\/p>\n
By the time Anaheim was over, the leaderboard looked almost symmetrical. Both Leme and Rossetto had ridden 17 of 20 bulls, and both were riding at 85%. Leme remained first with 1,504.10 aggregate points. Rossetto was second with 1,501.55.<\/p>\n
Rossetto\u2019s surge had become inseparable from Missouri\u2019s own. The Thunder swept Anaheim 3-0, improving to 14-6 and tying Nashville for the league\u2019s best record. Missouri held the No. 1 position through the first standings tiebreaker \u2014 season-long aggregate ride score \u2014 after putting more qualified rides and points on the board across its 20 games. A team that had spent much of the season chasing the top of the standings left the final neutral-site stop with everyone else chasing it.<\/p>\n
And Rossetto was hardly carrying the Thunder alone. Missouri beat the defending champion Carolina Cowboys 272.65-89.50 on Friday, blanked New York 265.30-0 on Saturday and shut out Texas 171.85-0 on Sunday. Across three games, the Thunder outscored their opponents 709.80-89.50.<\/p>\n
Macaulie Leather supplied Anaheim\u2019s biggest exclamation point. His 93.35-point ride on King Tut Friday for Missouri was the highest-scored ride of the 2026 PBR Teams season to this point and Leather\u2019s career best at the premier level. King Tut was marked 45.10, while Leather recorded his fourth 90-point ride of the season. Rossetto may have been chasing an MVP, but Missouri\u2019s depth was turning his individual run into something larger: a legitimate push for the No. 1 seed at the 2026 PBR Teams Championship.<\/p>\n
Austin left Anaheim on a four-game winning streak, while Leme remained in position to add another piece of PBR Teams history. If he holds off Rossetto for the 2026 Horse Soldier MVP Award and its $100,000 bonus, Leme would become a three-time PBR Teams MVP, winning the honor in three of the league\u2019s first five seasons.<\/p>\n
Leme arrived in Anaheim with room to breathe. Rossetto made sure he left without it.<\/p>\n
Now, with the MVP race nearly even and both riders operating at 85%, there is no cushion left to protect and no ground left to casually surrender.<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM, Calif. \u2014 Jose Vitor Leme arrived at Honda Center with a 95.80-point lead in the PBR Teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[182479,163,165,164,13162,170787],"class_list":["post-463401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-2026-teams","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-missouri-thunder","tag-pbr-teams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}