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Mike Tyson Says He Just Learned About Balrog/Mike Bison In Street Fighter II

Cactuar

Cactuar

Banned
Nov 30, 2018
5,878
From Kotaku,

As EventHubs points out, EPSN asked the former heavyweight champ if he knew the story about the character. Tyson replied, "No, I have no idea." ESPN's Arda Ocal explained how the boxer character Balrog was originally called "M. Bison" in Japan, with the initial being short for "Mike."

Apparently, Capcom was concerned about legal liability, and the character's name was changed to Balrog. In the original Japanese version of Street Fighter II, the cage-fighter character now known as Vega was called Balrog, and the last-boss character M. Bison was called Vega. Capcom switched all their names around to mitigate possible legal exposure.

Tyson had heard about M. Bison on his podcast in April, then calling the game's creators "dirty motherfuckers" and "jackasses." When ESPN showed Tyson the Street Fighter II pugilist, he replied, "Holy moly. Does he look like me?"
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ESPN video.

Is it possible Mike Tyson has never seen Balrog until ESPN showed him? After searching for more I dug up this image, which predates the ESPN interview,

eabb74ab493a6bbc83d1d862654346ef.jpg


But then I realized, just because some fool came up to Mike Tyson dressed as Balrog, it doesn't mean Tyson would know who that was. If I'm Tyson, I'm probably thinking, "Oh OK, this guy is such a fan he dressed up as me."

Also, Tyson made his impact on two undisputed Golden Age classics, Punch Out and Street Fighter II, Is there a living celebrity who had more impact on video game characters in the 80s/early 90s than Mike Tyson?
 
Aine

Aine

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May 27, 2019
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I keep hearing back and forth about the name change either being caused by legal worries or the rape case Tyson was facing at the time.
 
Ensoul

Ensoul

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Oct 27, 2017
1,348
I cannot believe he didn't know that lol. I knew the second I played the game back in the arcade it was based on Tyson. Then again I am much older than most people here and in 1991 Tyson was the biggest name in boxing.

I figure someone would have told him sooner considering the game is 28 years old in the US.
 
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JusDoIt

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Oct 25, 2017
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There are probably other celebrities who were featured in more games at the time, but nobody had an influence on bigger games than Tyson.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is my favorite NES game, edging out even SMB3. Street Fighter II has made me a lifelong Street Fighter stan and Balrog is probably my favorite character from SFII (him and Sagat).
 
Rommaz

Rommaz

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Nov 27, 2017
6,267
Kitwe, Zambia.
Idk if him not knowing after 28 years says something about how small fighting games are or says something about how much of a bubble Tyson lives in.
 
hikarutilmitt

hikarutilmitt

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Dec 16, 2017
11,447
Blythe said:
I keep hearing back and forth about the name change either being caused by legal worries or the rape case Tyson was facing at the time.
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It couldn't have been about the rape case because he was arrested that summer and the game was released in arcades in the spring. The name changes had to have happened before then, anyway. The Punch Out!! changing to Mr Dream was a result of the license expiring in general, too, since that was in 1990.

The thing to remember is that in SF1 he was just called Mike (and even Capcom is kind of wishy washy on if Mike really is boxer, but considering it was M Bison...).
 

vixlar

Member
Dec 5, 2017
400
jwk94 said:
Huh, I had no clue Balrog was based on Tyson.
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In Street Fighter Alpha 3 he has a wiinning quote that refers to "I'm gonna bite your ear off", as it happened in Tyson's fight against Evander Holyfield

Edit: This is the quote: "If you fight like that again, I'll bite your ear off!"
 

Deleted member 19954

User requested account closure
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Oct 28, 2017
345
It becomes really confusing because of this.
Boxer is Balrog in US, M Bison in JP.
Claw dood is Vega in US, Balrog in JP.
Big boss is M Bison in US, Vega in JP.
 
OP
OP
Cactuar

Cactuar

Banned
Nov 30, 2018
5,878
808s & Villainy said:
John Madden? Although I guess not characters per-say. Maybe Jackie Chan in Drunken Master? It seemed like a lot of fighting game had a drunken fist character
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Yeah, Madden not a playable character. Jackie Chan inspired games didn't have the impact of Punch Out or SF2. The only guy I really thought for consideration was Bruce Lee, which is why I said "living celebrity." Because at the time, Bruce Lee was already dead but characters like Fei Long and Lei Wu Long were obviously inspired by him.
 
Cordy

Cordy

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Oct 25, 2017
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I loved that mockumentary they did for Balrog which explained why he switched names lol. The Tyson connection has always been there.
 
Lulu

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Oct 25, 2017
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scitek said:
If you told him about Punch-Out!, it'd probably be his first time hearing about that, too.



His original name was M. Bison. They switched him with Balrog (what we know as M. Bison) to avoid legal trouble.
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He's stil M.Bison in Japan
 
hikarutilmitt

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Dec 16, 2017
11,447
Cactuar said:
Yeah, Madden not a playable character. Jackie Chan inspired games didn't have the impact of Punch Out or SF2. The only guy I really thought for consideration was Bruce Lee, which is why I said "living celebrity." Because at the time, Bruce Lee was already dead but characters like Fei Long and Lei Wu Long were obviously inspired by him.
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Lei Wu Long? You mean Marshall and Forrest Law? Lei is absolutely Jackie Chan.
 
Vorpal

Vorpal

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Nov 4, 2017
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Just something else to point out, knowing that Balrog's name was originally M Bison also explains the Buffalo connection for his nickname and super moves.
 
Silvergun-Blue

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Oct 26, 2017
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Linkent said:
It becomes really confusing because of this.
Boxer is Balrog in US, M Bison in JP.
Claw dood is Vega in US, Balrog in JP.
Big boss is M Bison in US, Vega in JP.
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It's because of this very thing that professional players and commentators often refer to the characters as Boxer, Claw and Dictator to avoid confusion.
 
Nairume

Nairume

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Oct 25, 2017
6,951
Cactuar said:
From Kotaku,



ESPN video.

Is it possible Mike Tyson has never seen Balrog until ESPN showed him? After searching for more I dug up this image, which predates the ESPN interview,

eabb74ab493a6bbc83d1d862654346ef.jpg


But then I realized, just because some fool came up to Mike Tyson dressed as Balrog, it doesn't mean Tyson would know who that was. If I'm Tyson, I'm probably thinking, "Oh OK, this guy is such a fan he dressed up as me."

Also, Tyson made his impact on two undisputed Golden Age classics, Punch Out and Street Fighter II, Is there a living celebrity who had more impact on video game characters in the 80s/early 90s than Mike Tyson?
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Schwarzenegger or Stallone?
 
supkid

supkid

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Oct 29, 2017
1,760
Dublin, Ireland
Cactuar said:
Also, Tyson made his impact on two undisputed Golden Age classics, Punch Out and Street Fighter II, Is there a living celebrity who had more impact on video game characters in the 80s/early 90s than Mike Tyson?
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Schwarzenegger, Contra (it's def him and Stallone on the cover) and Mike Haggar (at least I always thought so..) from Final Fight, there's probably a load more characters based off him.

Kurt Russell from Escape from New York being the basis for Solid Snake as well, arguably one of the biggest influences ever on gaming.
 
Stellar

Stellar

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
758
Doesn't really surprise me tbh. I think some people are forgetting just how absolutely massive Mike's fame was at his peak. I 100% believe video game matters like this just never even entered into his sphere of attention back then.
 
hikarutilmitt

hikarutilmitt

Member
Dec 16, 2017
11,447
Rygar 8Bit said:
Don't forget the classic Power Punch 2.
power-punch-ii-usa.png
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But that looks way more like Ali than Tyson.
supkid said:
Schwarzenegger, Contra (it's def him and Stallone on the cover) and Mike Haggar (at least I always thought so..) from Final Fight, there's probably a load more characters based off him.

Kurt Russell from Escape from New York being the basis for Solid Snake as well, arguably one of the biggest influences ever on gaming.
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Haggar is most definitely just a beefier Freddie Mercury.
 
Threekola Miroswish

Threekola Miroswish

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Feb 15, 2018
1,920
People didn't see the pic of "Balrog" and put 2 and 2 together when there was another character called "M. Bison" which is ridiculously close to Mike Tyson?

Mind destroyed
 
MrNewVegas

MrNewVegas

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Oct 27, 2017
10,728
I don't believe him. There's no way during 92-95 that nobody mentioned this shit to him.

He more than likely forgot about it.
 
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