How Mike Tyson’s Immense Stature Prompted Capcom To Alter a Key Street Fighter Character

Mike Tyson is one sportsperson who’s been known by nearly every person in over the last three decades. However, his popularity is unmatched even when it comes to video games. And it seems like he was, in a way, featured in a very old, yet classic Capcom arcade title.

This may sound bizarre at first but apparently, there was, in fact, a game from Capcom, called Street Fighter 2, that had one character who was very-much inspired by Mike Tyson.

Mike Tyson met his Street Fighter 2 counterpart!

Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior, is a classic fighting game from Capcom. It was originally launched for arcades in 1991. Also, it was the second overall entry in its series, being a direct successor to 1987’s Street Fighter. Furthermore, it was also Capcom’s fourteenth installment that used the arcade system board CP System.

Being a fighting title, it featured tons of characters to choose from for the players. Interestingly, there was one character named Balrog, who was an American boxer in this game. And his appearance was seemingly inspired a lot by the living legend Mike Tyson himself. Initially, his name was kept M. Bison when Street Fighter 2 was released in Japan.

So that’s another strong point suggesting that the makers of this arcade classic had one highly popular boxer in mind while designing this character.

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Just like any normal individual, even Mike Tyson was shocked and astonished to know about Balrog when he visited ESPN for an interaction. This exciting incident took place during the conversation between the Iron Mike and ESPN’s Arda Ocal.

Apparently, Arda surprised him by sharing the fact that Capcom’s 1991 game reportedly featured his Street Fighter 2 counterpart. Not just that, to prove his point, in a fun way, he also showed Tyson the image of Balrog from the arcade title itself.

Without a doubt, the gaming character’s face looked nearly identical to that of the former world champion. However, Mike didn’t have any idea about it. Simply put, he was mostly clueless.

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But it was great to see yet another instance of the legendary boxer inspiring a company like Capcom to feature him in a video game. He’s truly an icon, not just for the world, but also for the growing culture.

What are your thoughts on this story? Did you know about this already? Let us know in the comments.