Street Fighter’s development team has been spending quite a bit of time in the past two games giving characters more reasons for why they’re participating in the global tournaments and exploring the lore of the franchise.
This has given fans all new things to talk about and uncover, including that Sagat wears the upper-body cloth first seen in Street Fighter 5 so he doesn’t scare the villagers he’s staying with.
“[Sagat’s] a character who already has a lot of unique flavor, so there wasn’t much we could change about him. Here are the design ideas we had for his clothing,” wrote Street Fighter 6’s director, Takayuki Nakayama, previously about Sagat’s design in Street Fighter 5.
“We changed his outfit to something reminiscent of old Muay Thai styles. His body is covered in scars from training and his fights, so he wears the upper body cloth in order to not frighten the villagers — the kind considerations of a king,” Nakayama stated.
“Sagat’s got a pet tiger named Willa Maiu. His official name is ‘Phicit Willa Maiu’ which means victorious courageous cat,” he said.
“Sagat found him when he was still a cub. He called him Maiu for ‘cat’ but before long the cub had grown into a large, majestic tiger. Continuing to just call him ‘cat’ didn’t feel right, so the kids of the village gave him his full name,” concluded Nakayama.
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This is fascinating, because at some points in his life, it’s very clear Sagat wouldn’t have cared about frightening children in a village he’s staying in, but as age and wisdom have set in, he’s become a kinder and gentler soul.
After all, Sagat killed Dan Hibiki’s dad, Go, because he lost an eye in a fight to him, giving him his infamous eye patch.
Also, after Ryu beat him in the first Street Fighter game, giving him the scar across his chest, Sagat was focused purely on vengeance for a long time, even joining the ranks of Shadaloo to accomplish this goal.
Now that time and age have settled in for Sagat, he cares more about what other people think, although he’s still likely struggling with the Satsui no Hado, and it’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds during Street Fighter 6’s timeline.
It’s fair to wonder if any of the concept artwork for Sagat (gallery above) from the prior game make it into Street Fighter 6 as one of his alternative outfits.
Sagat releases for Street Fighter 6 on August 5, 2025, along with Outfit 4 for seven cast members.