Balrog

Lore & Background

Balrog is depicted as an African-American boxer wearing blue trunks with white trim and a torn white shirt under a blue tank top, wearing red boxing gloves and boxing shoes. In Japan, the character of Balrog is named M. Bison (with the letter being an initial for "Mike") after real-life boxer Mike Tyson. However, when the developers of Street Fighter II were working on the overseas versions, they rotated the names of three of the boss characters for the English localization (with the other two becoming M. Bison and Vega), fearing that naming the boxer character "Mike Bison" might be a legal liability. The story of Street Fighter 6 acknowledged this change within the context of its narrative, claiming that all three names were aliases that Shadaloo's leadership operated under to protect their true identities. A character named Mike, who was also a 6 ft 3.5 in (1.92 m) tall, extremely well-built African-American boxer, appears in the original Street Fighter. Although recognized as a separate character, Mike is considered to be a prototype of Balrog due to their similar names (when one considers Balrog's Japanese name of Mike Bison) and gameplay.

Reader's Guide

In the 1994 live-action film version of Street Fighter, Balrog is portrayed by Grand L. Bush and is a supporting protagonist and the videographer in Chun-Li's news crew. Balrog later appears in the 2009 film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, portrayed by Michael Clarke Duncan. Rapper and actor 50 Cent is set to appear as Balrog in the upcoming reboot. Balrog appears in the film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, where he serves in a similar capacity to his role in the video game. Balrog also appeared in the 1995 Street Fighter animated series.

Did You Know?

• Years later, Mike Tyson revealed he was unaware of the character but felt honored by the homage.
• Balrog is simply known as 'Boxer' for international tournaments.