The Built Ford Tough World Finals will return to Las Vegas in 2015 and tickets for the “toughest sport on dirt” are on sale now.

For the 22nd consecutive year, Las Vegas will host the richest bull riding event in the history of Western sports. The PBR World Finals returns to Las Vegas for a five-day show, Oct. 21-25, showcasing the Top 35 bull riders in the world and the top bulls, all competing for their share of the $2.2 million total purse.

One man will receive $250,000 as the PBR World Finals event winner, one bull will receive $50,000 as the World Champion Bull and one man will become a millionaire, receiving a $1 million bonus as the overall 2015 PBR World Champion.

The 2014 World Finals saw Silvano Alves capture his third world title in four years by going 6-for-6 to win $1.27 million and surpass Justin McBride as the richest Western athlete in history. Bushwacker, meanwhile, went out in style as a three-time World Champion Bull.

Tickets for the 2015 PBR World Finals range in price from $26 to $251. They can be purchased at www.unlvtickets.com, or by calling 866 PBR SHOW.

Silvano Alves became the second rider in PBR history to win a third world title Sunday at the Thomas & Mack Center after being named the 2014 World Champion. His World Finals earnings of $1.3 million, added to his 2014 Built Ford Tough Series regular-season winnings, moved him past two-time PBR World Champion Justin McBride as the richest western sports athlete in history.

The 26-year-old from Pilar do Sul, Brazil, went 6-for-6 at the Built Ford Tough World Finals for the first time in his career to win the event with 502 points, and earn enough points to surpass Joao Ricardo Vieira for the title.

Alves sat second in the standings entering the World Finals, trailing Vieira by 511 points. After five days of fighting his way to the top, he earned his third World Championship. He also won titles in 2011 and 2012.
“It really means a lot to me this year,” Alves said, “because at the beginning of the year, I wasn’t riding that great. Thankfully, I was able to stay healthy and come from behind.

True champions rise to the occasion when their backs are against the wall and that was exactly the case for two-time World Champion Bull Bushwacker this week at the Built Ford Tough World Finals.

Bushwacker gave owner Julio Moreno and the 17,204 standing fans in attendance one final memory during his last career out by roaring out of the bucking chute and taking two quick jumps to shed 2004 World Champion Mike Lee off his back in 2.13 seconds to claim his third World Champion Bull title on Sunday afternoon.

“It was tough, but we did it,” Moreno said. “Oh man, this is great. This is the ultimate. I was a little nervous the first time and thought he just didn’t get marked. Again, I thought, ‘Well, hopefully, this score of 46.5 points will hold up.’

“I can’t really explain how I feel; just, this is the greatest of my whole life.”
Bushwacker was marked 46.5 points three days after being credited with 45 points for bucking off Brady Sims in Round 2 (3.9 seconds).

Early on Sunday morning, Silvano Alves was getting ready to close the door of his hotel room at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino and head to the Thomas & Mack Center when his wife, Evelin, asked the Alves’ 2-year-old son, Eduardo, if his father could conquer Asteroid and win his third championship.

“I asked Eduardo, ‘Will your daddy ride Asteroid or fall off?” Evelin said. “He said, ‘My daddy has got Asteroid,’ When my son said that, I believe.”
Eduardo’s advice to his Dad?

“Just hold on tight and don’t let go,” Alves recalled his son saying before smiling.

Alves did that and more on Sunday afternoon to conclude the 2014 Built Ford Tough World Finals as the 2014 World Champion and World Finals event winner.

The Pilar Do Sul, Brazil, bull rider won a record-tying third World Championship and passed Justin McBride to become the richest athlete in Western sports history ($5,266,273.59) by going a perfect 6-for-6 to also win the World Finals event title for the first time in his career.

J.W. Harris easily could have left the Thomas & Mack Center as the top story of this year’s Finals for his nearly-impossible comeback to win the Rookie-of-the-Year title, if not for the fact that Silvano Alves, J.B. Mauney and Bushwacker were the standout stars of Championship Sunday at the Built Ford Tough World Finals.

Regardless, the four-time PRCA champion went 4-for-6 to stage a remarkable come-from-behind performance at the World Finals and earned 3,736 points toward the world standings to usurp Gage Gay, Tanner Byrne and Brady Sims for the PBR’s top accolade for a bull rider competing in the organization for the first time.

“That was the last thing in my mind,” Harris admitted. “I didn’t know how the deal worked over here, so I kind of thought since I was 28 years old, we will let somebody else win it and skip me out of the picture. It is pretty cool though. Coming in here, I was kind of way back and nobody thought I would win it. I came in and had a good Finals.”