Short answers, pulled from the story.
Balrog made his first appearance as a boss character within the 1991 release of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. He was originally named Mike Bison by developers in Japan before the name change occurred during international development.
Capcom rotated names among three bosses to avoid legal trouble with real-life boxer Mike Tyson when preparing overseas versions of the game. The original boxer character became Balrog while the dictator took the name M. Bison and the acrobat became Vega.
Balrog wears blue trunks trimmed in white, a torn white shirt beneath a blue tank top, red boxing gloves, and boxing shoes. His heavy build and muscular frame reflect his background as a street-raised boxer who relies on rapid punches and aggressive movement.
Grand L Bush portrayed Balrog in the 1994 live-action film adaptation while Michael Clarke Duncan played the role in the 2009 film titled Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Rapper-actor 50 Cent was scheduled to appear as Balrog in a planned reboot project that never materialized.
Capcom ranked Balrog eighteenth in their own popularity poll for the fifteenth anniversary of Street Fighter. IGN placed him at number fifteen among top Street Fighter characters in 2008 while fan polls consistently place him near the middle tier of fighter rankings.