The fighting game world is celebrating Saul Leonardo “MenaRD” Mena II as one of the greatest Street Fighter players ever. He just won Evo 2025, which is the biggest fighting game tournament on the planet. This huge win has fans putting him at the top of the list for the greatest players of all time.
But it isn’t just this one victory that makes him a legend. MenaRD is also the only Street Fighter pro to win two Capcom Cup championships. That is an amazing achievement that no one else has done since the event started in 2013.
On top of that, he won Evo Japan twice in a row in 2024 and 2025. He beat top Japanese players Ryukichi and Kakeru. Kakeru is a former Capcom Cup champion himself. The two met again on the main stage at Evo Las Vegas 2025. It was a very intense match.
Before these players fought on Sunday night, we got to sit down with MenaRD. We asked him about his mindset going into the tournament. He had just won Evo Japan a few months before, so we wanted to know how he stayed so strong.
MenaRD 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 exciting performance on Sunday night, you might not believe this was the same player. Mena was calm, thoughtful, and composed. He told us that he simply took things as they came. He did not get too emotionally invested in his results.
He said, “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.” He made sure everything was taken care of before the event.
He explained, “I have everything set so I can have peace of mind. I can focus on the tournament. I 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
MenaRD was not the only one thinking this way. Last year’s Evo runner-up, BigBird, had similar thoughts about this year’s tournament. He also focused on staying calm.
“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. I don’t think you should be sad about it.”
Both BigBird and MenaRD shared similar sentiments regarding their mindsets going into Evo 2025.
The composure behind MenaRD’s electrifying Evo showdown
Mena’s calm attitude seemed to change as he moved through the bracket. He became more intense as the weekend went on. He even shared a video of himself shadowboxing as a warm-up for the Sunday finals.
On Sunday night, he met Kakeru in the Winners’ Final. He threw his backpack to the ground and
, UFC weigh-in style. It was a callback to their past
. It showed clearly that Mena was pumped up and ready to win his first Evo Las Vegas title.
MenaRD and Kakeru performed a callback to their previous Grand Finals set from Evo Japan 2024 with a fierce staredown.
After sending Kakeru to the Losers’ bracket, Mena secured his spot in the Grand Final. Kakeru fought his way back, taking out a new Hong Kong pro named Mickey. He then met Mena in the last fight of the night — and Mena swept the match.
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 during this?
We asked him this question at the post-match press conference. 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 helped Mena reach the top. Besides 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. He wants to eventually take Evo France and Evo Singapore. For now, he is 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. He has securely cemented himself in the fighting game hall of legends in players’ hearts.
