The fighting game community is hailing Saul Leonardo “MenaRD” Mena II as one of the greatest Street Fighter players in history after winning Evo 2025, the largest fighting game tournament in the world.
This victory alone isn’t inspiring fans to put him on their ‘Mt. Rushmore’ of fighting game GOATs, though; Mena is also the only Street Fighter pro to have won two Capcom Cup championships, an insane feat that hadn’t been accomplished in the decade since it began in 2013.
On top of that, he won Evo Japan twice in back-to-back victories in 2024 – 2025 against Japanese pros Ryukichi and Kakeru, the latter of whom is also a former Capcom Cup champion. The two met once again on the main stage at Evo Las Vegas 2025, one year after Mena’s victory on Kakeru’s home turf — and it was a bloodbath.
But before these players digitally duked it out on Sunday night, we got the chance to sit down with Mena and pick his brain about his mindset going into the tournament, having just won Evo Japan a few months prior.
Red Bull Content Pool: Natalia MartinezMenaRD is being considered one of the greatest fighting game players in the world following his Evo 2025 victory against Kakeru.
To MenaRD, mindset is more important than any opponent
After watching his electrifying performance on Sunday night, you wouldn’t have believed this was the same player. Mena was calm, thoughtful, and composed, telling us that he was simply ‘taking things as they come’ rather than getting too emotionally invested in his results.
“ My mindset is just keeping all of the outside things — you know, my body, all of the problems that could arise, my family — everything is set [and taken care of],” he told us.
“I have everything set so I can have peace of mind, and I can focus on the tournament, and try to keep in mind anything that can take away my focus. That way, I can play for hours on Saturday and try to have that quality gameplay that I need.
“I think it’s more important than trying to worry about, ‘Oh, this specific player, what is he gonna do?’ You have to beat everybody, basically.”
BigBird says being ‘zen’ is the best way to approach Street Fighter 6
Mena wasn’t alone in his thinking. Last year’s Evo runner-up, BigBird, expressed similar sentiments about this year’s tournament.
“ To be honest, lately my mindset with entering tournaments hasn’t really been, ‘Oh, I gotta practice hard next tournament, or I gotta work on this and that. My mindset lately has been going to the tournament and making sure I’m prepared, obviously, but going in with the mindset that, ‘Okay, I’m gonna do my best. If it works, okay, I go on, next. If it doesn’t work, GGs, we go to the next tournament,” he explained.”
“I think what you’re in control of is basically making sure you’re just prepared, but whatever goes on in the tournament or in the set, I do feel like you don’t have a hundred percent control over it. You can win, you can lose, obviously, but eventually it might come down to a very split-second decision or a lucky guess, and I don’t think you should be sad about it.”
Red Bull Content Pool: Todd GutierrezBoth BigBird and MenaRD shared similar sentiments regarding their mindsets going into Evo 2025.
The composure behind MenaRD’s electrifying Evo showdown
Mena’s rather zen disposition seemed to shift as he worked his way through the bracket. He increasingly became more intense as the weekend wore on, finally uploading a video of himself shadowboxing as a warm-up to the Sunday finals.
And on Sunday night, he confronted Kakeru in the Winners’ Final by throwing his backpack to the ground and staring him down, UFC weigh-in style. It was a callback to their past Grand Finals match at Evo Japan 2024, and a clear sign that Mena was amped up and dedicated to winning his first Evo Las Vegas victory.
Red Bull Content Pool: Todd GutierrezMenaRD and Kakeru performed a callback to their previous Grand Finals set from Evo Japan 2024 with a fierce staredown.
After tossing Kakeru into the Losers’ bracket, Mena secured his spot in the Grand Final. Kakeru climbed his way back up, taking out upstart Hong Kong pro Mickey to once again meet Mena in the last fight of the night — and Mena swept.
It was as if Mena were a shark that smelled blood in the water. His performance was aggressive, surgical, and exact. In a 3-0 sweep, the Dominican pro secured the Evo Vegas 2025 championship… but did his mindset stay the same?
We asked him this question at the post-match press conference, where the beaming champ happily admitted that, although he looked fired-up on the outside, he was calm and composed within.
“I tried to maintain that mindset as much as I could,” he answered. “In Winners’ Finals, when I stared down Kakeru, that had me pretty fired up. But then, the Grand Finals was just the technical aspect of, ‘I have three more matches than you. I’m able to take more risks. You have all this pressure. It’s very difficult for him to be in that position and I took advantage of it.
“Inside, I was very quiet, very neutral and just waiting for the win to celebrate.”
This is just one of a few things that have aided Mena in his fight to the top. On top of keeping a calm mindset, Mena told us that he had to put the game before almost everything in his life to get where he is today.
“The only thing that I see all of us [pros] have in common is that we’re not necessarily willing to sacrifice everything, but basically put the game over everything. It’s the main priority in all of our lives. I see a lot of people that they have the talent, they understand Street Fighter, but it’s not the end of the world if they lose.
It’s a good thing in life, but it’s a bad thing for competition, ’cause it needs to be that serious. You’re gonna fight people that all they do is play Street Fighter all day and think about Street Fighter all day, so you have to make the game your priority.”
Mena is now aiming to be a champion of all four Evo events, eventually taking Evo France and Evo Singapore. For now, he’s recovering from his big victory and setting his sights on the next major — but his performance at Evo Las Vegas 2025 won’t soon be forgotten, having securely cemented him in the fighting game hall of legends in players’ hearts.
