Chun Li became known worldwide as the very first playable female fighting game character in the 1990s, followed up by the very first playable female martial artist in a 1980s fighting game which was Yuki from Typhoon Gal (1985), but she was only known in Japan.
Capcom feared in America, the boxer character M. Bison's name was too similar to real-life boxer Mike Tyson, and they wanted to avoid lawsuits. As such, they changed around the names of the boss characters. It's unknown why they didn't just change the boxer's name; it would have been easier and created fewer translation problems.
An early name for Zangief during the development stage of the game was Vodka Gobalsky.
There is a drawing error on Chun-Li's facial portrait on the select screen - she is wearing orange, when in actuality she wears blue. This was corrected on the Super Nintendo version.
The boss names were changed around for the English Language version. The boxer M. Bison became Balrog, Balrog the pretty-boy Spaniard became Vega, and Vega, the Shadaloo leader, became M. Bison.