By Lincoln Shryack

Three-time reigning PRCA bull riding world champion Sage Kimzey will make his PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals debut this week in Las Vegas after picking up a win at last weekend’s Velocity Tour Finals.

Kimzey converted on all four of his bulls in Vegas, including an 88-point ride on Vegas Lights in the championship round to seal the victory. The win netted the Oklahoma cowboy $26,300 and an automatic berth into the world finals.

“To get to go out to the [world finals] this year, 2017 has been a crazy blessed year,” Kimzey told PBR.com.

The 23-year-old is ProRodeo’s top-ranked cowboy once again in 2017, and now he’ll test his mettle on PBR’s biggest stage for the first time. Only two bull riders in history — Ted Nuce and Ty Murray — have won a PRCA world bull riding title and the PBR World Finals, but given Kimzey’s form in 2017 he’ll have a good shot. The cowboy picked up big PBR wins earlier in the season at the Calgary Stampede and The American.

Even Vegas Lights couldn't keep @SageKimzey from shining on the big stage.

Next stop: PBR World Finals pic.twitter.com/WnmDxvhq6A

— PBR (@PBR) October 31, 2017

“He will be right in there on the last day with a chance to win it,” PBR director of livestock Cody Lambert said to PBR.com. “He is that good.”

Kimzey’s brilliant 2017 has included 15 PRCA event wins and a commanding $33,000 lead heading into next month NFR Finals, held December 7-16 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Even with all his rodeo dominance, one ride from Kimzey’s 2017 campaign stands out as supreme proof that the PBR newbie can handle the world’s toughest bulls. On July 1, Kimzey rode the world’s top-ranked bull, Pearl Harbor, for 92 points. He’s one of just five athletes in history to convert on the bull.

Kimzey rides tonight in round one of the PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals. The event runs through Sunday.