Bizouard, the FIM champ from both 2008 and 2009, has won the last three events in the 2011 FIM series, but Villegas' overall points lead is so strong that all he needs to do to secure the championship title is make the cut for finals this weekend. The finals will be webcast live at www.NightOfTheJumps.com.

"The only pressure I feel is to not get hurt," he says. "I pretty much just need to show up and put on a basic run, and that will give me enough points to make it. But that doesn't mean that's how I'm going to do it: I'm still going to try to beat Remi and all those guys, and put on the best show possible for the fans in Bulgaria. I'll have nothing to lose once I'm there, so I'm going to go all or nothing, like always."

Night of the JumpsVillegas at the Ostrava, Czech Republic stop in November. Villegas placed second behind Remi Bizouard with moves such as this Indian air backflip.

It's been a long ride for Villegas, who says his father bought him his first dirt bike when he was just seven years old.

"The most important thing for me, from as far back as I can remember, was jumping," Villegas recalls. "I wouldn't ask my dad, 'How fast I was going?' All I wanted to know was 'How far did I jump? How high did I jump?' And then in 1993 and '94, when the first Crusty Demons videos came out and made it down to Chile, something kind of sparked in me, like, 'That's the thing I want to do!' I wanted to go out there and jump and do tricks and find out out what I could really do on the bike. My dad wasn't very supportive in the beginning because that would mean me crashing and bending bars and levers and ripping gear. But by 2001, after we saw an FMX demo in Chile, I was ready to quit motocross racing and go for it. I saw an opportunity to be the best and not just some other guy riding a dirt bike."

"For every hour that I've spent on my bike or training in the gym, I've spent another hour reading sports psychology books to get my mind stronger.

--Javier Villegas

In the years since he's made being the best into his number one priority, moving his family to the United States to make a serious go at it (first to Florida to live with his parents, then to Texas to train with Chuck Carothers, and, finally, to his current home in California, to ride with some some of the biggest names in FMX).

"I first visited the U.S. in 2001 and 2003 and I knew I wanted to be here," Villegas explains. "Just to be the best in my country or the best in Latin America wasn't enough for me. I wanted to be among the top riders in the world, and I knew that if I stayed in my place I wouldn't be challenged enough to get on top. I knew I needed to ride with the best riders in the world as often as I could if I wanted to be one of them."

Villegas has literally been making a study of how to be a champion. No, really:

"For every hour that I've spent on my bike or training in the gym, I've spent another hour reading sports psychology books to get my mind stronger," he says. "I've learned that you can't be distracted by what everyone else is doing, so I just train really hard and go out there and have fun, focus on the thunderous applause and the crowd yelling my name, and give it everything I've got. So far it has been working out for me. As soon as I finish a good run and make it to the podium, it's hard to describe the happiness I feel. It's wonderful to be doing something I love so much: I wake up every morning with a smile on my face."

But as much as he loves winning competitions and is looking forward to claiming his first championship title, Villegas says he's even more in awe of winning new fans. This year he's been competing in a jersey emblazoned with his Twitter handle, @JVAirX, and says he thrives on putting on a good show and interacting with FMX fans.

"It's super rewarding to get that love and recognition, to have the roar of the crowd be so loud you can hear it through your helmet," Villegas says. "It's been super hard to get my name out there, coming from where I come from, and I really hope that while I'm out there going for it I'm inspiring somebody else to chase after their own dream. To know that I've inspired someone, even just one boy or girl out there out of all the countries I've visited, that would be a lifetime achievement for me."

Night of the JumpsVillegas with main competition Remi Bizouard, the FIM champ from both 2008 and 2009 who has won the last three events in the 2011 FIM series.

Villegas says he's been honored to compete in the International Freestyle Motocross Federation (IFMXF) Night of the Jumps events and the FIM Freestlye MX World Championships for exactly that reason, and says he thinks the future of FMX will bring an increasingly international mix of riders, including at least one other Chilean athlete.

"My brother Gabriel is also very good," he says. "That's good for me, because I'm not going to let him beat me."