Nothing is fazing Matt Triplett right now.

The Columbia Falls bull rider, currently ranked No. 2 in the world, is back in Montana to compete at this weekend’s Stanley Performance in Action Invitational in Billings in the Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series. He’s doing so just four weeks after tearing the medial collateral ligament in his left knee at a PBR event in Albuquerque.

Triplett is in the midst of the best season of his career, leading the PBR in round wins and event wins. He was the top-ranked bull rider in the world for eight weeks before getting injured and has his sights set firmly on a world championship at the end of the year.

So even a bum knee wasn’t going to stop him from riding in front of the fans that have supported him his whole career.

“The knee feels pretty good,” Triplett said.  

“I still have a torn MCL, but a lot of bull riders ride with a torn MCL. It’s feeling a lot better. I’m getting a lot of movement back.”

Doctors quickly determined Triplett wouldn’t need surgery on his knee. After working out with trainers the last few weeks at Michael Johnson Performance (MJP) in McKinney, Texas, Triplett has improved significantly and will ride with a brace. It is the first time in his career he will compete with a brace.

“I got (the brace) a couple of days ago in Texas and I road the barrel there,” Triplett said. “I’ve rode some horses with it. I don’t think it’s going to affect my game at all.”

The PBR event runs tonight through Sunday at Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark. Triplett is also set to compete in the 15/15 Bucking Battle on Saturday night.

The event will be streamed live online at carbontv.com/pbr-live and a replay will run on Sunday at 4 p.m. on CBS Sports Network. A replay of the 15/15 Bucking Battle will run on CBS at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Triplett finished third in Billings last season, his first full year on the PBR’s top circuit.

“This is a big event for me just because the fact that it’s in Montana,” Triplett said.

“I always put it on the map as a target. This is one I want to win and it would be a huge accomplishment to win it.”

His rise to the top of the sport began midway through last season when, after hitting a slump on tour, he reinvented his routine before events to help himself focus. He credits hot yoga with sharpening his mental preparation and the work he’s done at MJP with getting him prepared to handle the physical grind of the PBR.

“That was really the breaking point of my career,” Triplett said. “It made me a better bull rider, putting more dedication into it.

“I changed a few things. I started doing yoga and started doing work outs, started really preparing myself for events. Not just going home and sitting on the couch. I’m actually preparing all the muscles that I need to and getting my core spots worked out.”

The changes showed results. Triplett closed last season with seven consecutive rides in the month of October, capped by a 92-point ride on Walk Off in the PBR Finals. The run vaulted him to a fifth place finish at the World Finals and a career-best third in the world standings.

He opened this season riding four of his first five bulls and won his first career BFTS event in January in Oklahoma City. He was riding 69.6 percent of his bulls after winning his second event, in Anaheim, California, and had risen to the top of the world standings.

Even now, with four weeks off, Triplett leads the PBR with two wins on tour this season and five round wins. He trails world leader Joao Ricardo Vieira by just 295 points entering the weekend.

“It dawned on me last year when I rode Walk Off in the championship round,” Triplett said.

“I got that feeling and the confidence knowing I can ride every rank bull there is going down the road.”

With just four more events before PBR’s summer break, Triplett will have time to gain back standing along some time to heal up before the stretch towards the PBR Finals.

“It’s always been something that I’ve wanted since I was a little kid is a world championship,” he said.

“It’s something that I’ve known that I can do.”