Mike

"Ha ha ha! I'm strongest!"

—Mike

Not to be confused with Balrog, whose name in Japanese is Mike Bison. Mike may also refer to Mike Haggar, Mike Moh, or Mike Lunn.

Mike (マイク, Maiku^?) is a non-playable character from the Street Fighter series who first appeared in the original Street Fighter game as one of the ten computer-controlled opponents.

Biography

Story

Mike was a convicted felon who committed an armed robbery back in 1977, and carries not more than 10 years by serving time in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, nicknamed "Big Mac". During the middle of his years in prison, he spent all of his free time learning, practicing, and training to become a heavyweight boxer.

When he was released in early-1987, he started to look for street fights in order to raise money to help the poor in addition to contributing to his community by teaching children how to box. But a bigger opportunity arose when the World Fighting Tournament was announced and hosted by Sagat, Mike thinks it would make him rich and famous if he won the championship, so he signs up for the USA Division of the tournament alongside Joe, both he and the kickboxer however lost to Ryu.

He loves his family and has a good relationship with his sister, who is five years younger than him.^[1]

Appearance

Mike is a tall, heavily built and very muscular African-American boxer. His clothes resembles what Cody Travers wears in Final Fight. The only differences being that Mike wears a red T-shirt, has white sneakers with red accents, and wears a red mouthpiece during every fight he is in.

Other appearances

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition

Mike makes an appearance in Balrog's Street Fighter I arcade ending (where some characters who debut in future installments appear for story purposes, including Balrog, Abigail, and Zeku). The ending depicts Balrog defeating Sagat, however, reporters rush by him to instead congratulate Mike, mistakenly believing he was the victorious one (with Balrog proclaiming "Waitaminute... That's not me!"). Balrog suddenly wakes up, revealing everything to be just a nightmare.

Balrog would later get an alternate costume based on Mike.^[3]

Trivia

Mike is the precursor to Balrog. Both are based on the retired boxer, Mike Tyson.

The black street fighter and the white street fighter featured in the original Street Fighter II intro cutscene were initially believed to be Mike and Joe from the very first game. However, the Shadaloo C.R.I. section of the Capcom Fighters Network website later revealed that they were separate characters named Max and Scott, respectively.^[4]

Up until their new artwork were released for the Shadaloo C.R.I. website, Mike and Joe were the only fighters never to be officially featured in any other Street Fighter related media outside the original game.

Due to his appearance, moveset and Japanese name, Balrog was speculated to have been an updated version of Mike. However, Capcom has insisted that, despite these similarities, they were always intended to be two separate characters. The Street Fighter World Warrior Encyclopedia (hardcover version) lists them as separate individuals^[5] as does the Shadaloo C.R.I. website, which has a separate character page for Mike and redesigned artwork for him.^[1]

Mike slightly resembles Mr. Sandman from the Punch-Out!! series by Nintendo.
- Coincidentally, Mr. Sandman is also based off an African-American boxer, in his case, Muhammad Ali.