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Balrog is the American name of Mike Bison from the Street Fighter video game series. His name was changed for the American version of the game due to potential legal trouble with American boxer Mike Tyson. Contrary to popular belief, he is not in anyway related to the character "Mike" from the very first Street Fighter game, despite sharing the same given name in the Japanese versions.
According to his official biography, Balrog was born in America on September 4, 1969. He stands 198 cm and weighs 102 kg. His blood type is A. His special skill is gambling, and likes women and beer. He dislikes hard work and mathematics.
He was banned from boxing because he killed an opponent, so he entered the World Warrior tournament to make some quick cash. Unfortunately, the young Japanese fighter Ryu defeated him. Balrog then joined the Shadowlaw criminal organization, and worked his way up from the bottom. While running errands for M. Bison, he killed Dhalsim's elephant with a single Gigaton Punch. One mission had Balrog sent to terminate Birdie. Although he didn't know why, Balrog went anyway. Birdie told him about the Psycho Drive, and Balrog agreed to help him find it, thinking he could make money off of it. When the Psycho Drive exploded, Balrog realized that he hadn't been paid recently.
After the events of Street Fighter II, it is likely that Balrog took Shadoloo's reins of power, and then spectacularly ran the organization into the ground. He lost all of his power and influence, and was reduced to a bum on the streets.
In Edmund Honda and Chun-Li Zang, and the three join the efforts of Colonel Guile to stop the reign of General M. Bison.