Who comes into your mind when you see this name?

Does the evil psycho kinetic general comes into your mind first or the heavy punching slugger type boxer?

For most people, they may associate the name with the former. However for some, M. Bison is a boxer.

Take a look at the screenshot from Street Fighter 2. It was a match between E.Honda and Vega. Yes Vega, not M. Bison. So who is M. Bison then?

This is M. Bison, the all-too-familiar boxer from Street Fighter. But wait…

M. Bison is now the General and Balrog is the boxer?

Both versions of the Street Fighter II are authentic. The first version we have shown you is the Japan version while the other is the US version.

The boxer in Street Fighter was originally named M. Bison. The ‘M’ refers to ‘Mike’ and hence Mike Bison. Sounds familiar? Because it is. Mike Tyson, Mike Bison, both names even rhymes.

When Capcom localized Street Fighter II for the US, they decided to rotate the name of the bosses in Street Fighter II for fear of legal liability of M. Bison the boxer. So the name of the boxer was changed from M. Bison to Balrog. In fact three characters name were swapped.

Photo credit: ringsandcoins.com

In the latest Street Fighter V, the Japanese version still keeps the same naming convention.

So don’t get confuse by the names. Just understand the history.