By the final round Saturday night at the Indian National Finals Rodeo, all Dakota Louis needed to do was stay on his bull for a full eight seconds and score more than 53 points to win his third World Champion Bull Rider title.

All the bull had to do was buck hard enough to throw Louis off before the whistle blew and he could ride to retirement after this, his final rodeo outing.

The two knew each other. Three years ago, Louis was 18 when he first competed in bull riding at the finals and he had been on the same top-ranking bull, a behemoth named Slow Ride. Louis, a Northern Cheyenne tribal member from Montana, won that round with Slow Ride.

Only one other bull rider has ever garnered three world champion titles in the history of this rodeo, and Louis’ own father was a two-time Indian world champion bull rider himself. If Louis won, he would surpass his father's record and enter a whole new class of rider.

All he needed was eight seconds.

“Bull-riding has been voted the most dangerous sport in the whole world,'' Louis said earlier in the day. "So I guess they look at us like gladiators.''