2022 Austin Gamblers athletes take three of the top five spots on night one of the Unleash The Beast individual series competition at Crypto.com Arena
LOS ANGELES – As a full house of Western sports fans cheered inside of Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night in downtown Los Angeles, 2020 PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Rookie of the Year Boudreaux Campbell (Crockett, Texas) put 37 of the top bull riders in the world in his rearview mirror as he took the lead in the two-day event, winning Round 1 of the PBR SoCal Showdown.
On Los Angeles’s opening night – which marks the world’s top bull riding organization’s fourth visit to the City of Angels – 24-year-old Campbell’s bovine partner for Round 1 was Shameless (D&H Cattle Co/ Futrell).
As the 2022 Carolina Cowboy launched from the chutes, he matched the animal athlete every second in skill as his fellow riders cheered him on from the back of the chutes.
Recording the highest score of the night at 91.25 points, Campbell clinched his first round win of the 2023 UTB (Unleash The Beast) season and the first Round 1 win of his career.
“This feels amazing,” said Campbell. “I have been in the PBR a long time, have multiple event wins, have won at World Finals, but I don’t think I have ever won a long round. Just to be in this city, riding bulls in front of these amazing fans, is awesome.”
For his winning efforts in Round 1, Campbell collected 29 points to jump from No. 11 in the UTB standings to No. 9 as he heads into Championship Saturday atop the event leaderboard.
For video highlights of Round 1, including Campbell’s opening-round-winning ride, courtesy PBR, click here.
In all, there were 15 qualified rides on night one in Southern California.
In a surprising upset, world leader Jose Vitor Leme (Ribas do Rio, Brazil) was no match for Sock Monkey (D&H Cattle Co.), hitting the ground just short of the buzzer at 7.33 seconds. Holding tight to his No. 1 spot in the standings, Leme still leads world No. 2 Andrew Alvidrez (Seminole, Texas) by 102.5 points in the UTB standings.
Alvidrez was victorious in his Friday night matchup with I’m No Angel (Cooper/ Scruggs Bucking Bulls) for 86 points to come in seventh in the round.
Not far behind Campbell was fellow Texan Dalton Kasel (Muleshoe, Texas) with a second-place finish in Round 1.
Clinging tight to the No. 7 spot in the world standings, the 2022 Austin Gambler was paired with WSM’s Time in a Bottle(WSM Auctioneers/ Clay Struve/ Dakota Rodeo/ Chad Berger).
In late October 2022, the 24-year-old matched up with the powerful bovine for an impressive 91.25 points during the inaugural PBR Team Series event in Glendale, Arizona.
Hoping for a similar score, Kasel was laser-focused on the chutes.
Remaining in remarkable control the entire ride, he recorded a solid 90-point score on Friday night.
Kasel collected 19 points for the second-place finish and was congratulated by his fellow riders as he strode from the dirt.
Marcelo Procopio Pereira (Rinopolis, Brazil) and Austin Richardson (Dallas, Texas) shared third place in Round 1 with matching 87.25-point rides.
Up first in the duo was Kasel’s Gamblers teammate from the inaugural season, Richardson. Paired with Fat Magic (D&H Cattle Company), the muscular animal athlete was no match for the 23-year-old Texan.
Pereira was up later in the night, rocketing from the chutes aboard Skeeter Peter (Dakota Rodeo/ Mark Baker/ Clay Struve/ Chad Berger). Flawlessly conquering his opponent, the 2022 Missouri Thunder athlete easily sailed into Sunday.
Both Richardson and Pereira collected 16.5 UTB points, helping Richardson make the move from No. 37 to No. 33 and moving Pereira up one spot from No. 21 to No. 20.
As Gamblers athletes continued to make their mark at Crypto.com Arena, Griffin Smeltzer (Claresholm, Alberta, Canada) rounded out the Top 5 with an 86.5-point score on Mikey’s Surprise (Ogden Ranch/ Hart Cattle Co.).
Collecting 15 world points, Smeltzer made the move from No. 63 in the UTB standings to No. 55.
The full field of 38 athletes will have the opportunity to gain ground in Round 2, followed by the championship round, as the PBR SoCal Showdown continues on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 1:45 p.m. PST. The championship round will also be televised on CBS Sports Network on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 8 p.m. EST.
PBR RidePass on Pluto TV will offer re-airs and on-demand replays of every PBR UTB event. PBR RidePass is available on desktops, laptops and mobile devices via www.pluto.tv.
PBR Unleash The Beast – PBR SoCal Showdown
Crypto.com Arena -Los Angeles, California
Event Leaders (Round 1-Round 2-Round 3-Event Aggregate-Event Points)
- Boudreaux Campbell, 91.25-0-0-91.25-29 Points.
- Dalton Kasel, 90-0-0-90.00-19 Points.
- Marcelo Procopio Pereira, 87.25-0-0-87.25-16.5 Points.
(tie). Austin Richardson, 87.25-0-0-87.25-16.5 Points.
- Griffin Smeltzer, 86.5-0-0-86.50-15 Points.
- Dener Barbosa, 86.25-0-0-86.25-14 Points.
- Andrew Alvidrez, 86-0-0-86.00-13 Points.
- Daniel Keeping, 85-0-0-85.00-12 Points.
- Ramon de Lima, 84.5-0-0-84.50-11 Points.
- Chase Outlaw, 83.5-0-0-83.50-10 Points.
- Braidy Randolph, 82.75-0-0-82.75-9 Points.
- Kaique Pacheco, 82.5-0-0-82.50-8 Points.
- João Ricardo Vieira, 81-0-0-81.00-8 Points.
- Luciano De Castro, 80.25-0-0-80.25-8 Points.
- Casey Roberts, 69-0-0-69.00
Jose Vitor Leme, 0-0-0-0.00
Cooper Davis, 0-0-0-0.00
Rafael Jose de Brito, 0-0-0-0.00
Jesse Petri, 0-0-0-0.00
Keyshawn Whitehorse, 0-0-0-0.00
Silvano Alves, 0-0-0-0.00
Wingson Henrique da Silva, 0-0-0-0.00
Rafael Henrique dos Santos, 0-0-0-0.00
Tate Pollmeier, 0-0-0-0.00
Koltin Hevalow, 0-0-0-0.00
Manoelito de Souza Junior, 0-0-0-0.00
Kyler Oliver, 0-0-0-0.00
Jess Lockwood, 0-0-0-0.00
Sandro Batista, 0-0-0-0.00
Ezekiel Mitchell, 0-0-0-0.00
Wyatt Rogers, 0-0-0-0.00
Flavio Zivieri, 0-0-0-0.00
Mauricio Gulla Moreira, 0-0-0-0.00
Aaron Williams, 0-0-0-0.00
Cody Jesus, 0-0-0-0.00
Clayton Sellars, 0-0-0-0.00
Mason Moody, 0-0-0-0.00
Elizmar Jeremias, 0-0-0-0.00
