MenaRD defeated Daigo Umehara in the main event of Evo Legends Live, winning the long-awaited Street Fighter 6 first-to-10 exhibition between one of the strongest modern Street Fighter players and the FGC’s most famous long-set specialist.
The match took place on April 29 at Club Citta in Kawasaki, Japan. Evo Legends Live opened with undercard exhibitions before the Daigo vs. MenaRD Kemonomichi main event, with Laggia vs. GO1 in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and Arslan Ash vs. Chikurin in Tekken 8.
GO1 vs. Laggia went the distance in the FT7, as GO1 played Marco, and Laggia used Gato. This was a SNK World Championship 2025 Finals rematch, in which Laggia managed to defeat the legendary opponent and win $1,500,000 in prize money. Today, GO1 was a tiny bit better, but both players were so evenly matched skill-wise that there was virtually nothing between them.
For the second match, the Pakistani Tekken phenom Arslan Ash faced one of Japan’s best, Chikurin. Unexpectedly, Chikurin took the lead 5:0 in the FT7 match, but Arslan managed to claw himself back to 5:4. This proved to be not enough, and Chikurin closed out the set 7:4.
The main attraction was the match between the undisputed Street Fighter GOAT, Daigo Umehara, who’s also known for his FT10 match prowess, and the best Street Fighter player of modern times, MenaRD. The Strongest Bull, as the latter is known, was a clear favorite, as Daigo’s age finally caught up to him and his performances fell off. But it was not a blowout many would have expected: Daigo is still one of the best ever, and his Akuma is fearsome indeed. He rolled back the years in some of the rounds and managed to take 6 games against a much younger opponent.
With this, MenaRD made his wish come true. The Dominican player has always cited Daigo as his biggest inspiration, and the opportunity to face one of the biggest figures in all of esports was something he longed for a long time.
Beating Daigo in a first-to-10 is the kind of win players unsuccessfully chase for their whole careers, and doing it in Japan under the Evo banner will make sure it goes down in history.
