With South Florida still feeling the excitement of the Florida Panthers repeating as Stanley Cup Champions, another one of the region’s professional sports teams is looking to follow in their footsteps.
After relocating to the Sunshine State last season, the Florida Freedom – Florida’s only professional bull riding team – are hopeful that they will be the next team to bring a World Championship to the region. And they are preparing to return home to Sunrise and Amerant Bank Arena for their second annual homestand next weekend, Aug. 8-10. During their event, the Freedom will play an exciting trio of games, set to play the Arizona Ridge Riders (Aug. 8), New York Mavericks (Aug. 9) and Kansas City Outlaws (Aug. 10).
The Florida Freedom compete in the groundbreaking PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Teams league, which transforms bull riding from an individual sport into one where riders band together in teams, competing in head-to-head, five-on-five games. Last season, the Freedom concluded the individual season No. 3 in the league, before finishing fourth at the year-end Championship in Las Vegas.
The Florida Freedom are led by PBR Ring of Honor inductee Paulo Crimber. In a dynamic rarely seen in professional sports, Crimber’s roster is led by his son, teenage phenom John Crimber who was crowned both the 2024 PBR Teams MVP and Teams Championship MVP. The roster features some of PBR’s top Brazilian talents including veteran Joao Ricardo Vieira, Thiago Salgado, Elizmar Jeremias and Alex Cerqueira.
With the 2025 season in full swing, the Freedom are already making their presence known. With a 3-2 record thus far, they are currently ranked No. 4 in the league as their turn their attention to their upcoming homestand event. And the Freedom will ride in with a wave of momentum at their back. In their most recent game, Florida went a perfect 5-for-5 in defeating the Nashville Stampede. The game was the first perfect effort for the Freedom and just seventh ever in the four-year history of PBR Teams.