Steve Fox is a middleweight boxing world champion whose ingenious technique and pace control in the ring have charmed countless audiences. Raised in a facility owned by the Mishima Zaibatsu, Steve went on a search for his real parents the moment he learned he was just a test subject.

He encounters Nina Williams by chance and learns that he was made from her genetic material. Although they are mother and son by blood, Nina has never acknowledged Steve as her own. To Steve, knowing his roots was everything. Nina, on the other hand, believed such knowledge to be a mere inconvenience.

The bell rings, wrapping up Steve's fight with his past. With his driving force in life gone, Steve becomes a husk of his former self.

His training buddies Paul Phoenix and Marshall Law sense his desperation and come to his rescue.

"If you have time to look so down, then you have time for a tournament! If any of us ends up on top, let's split the prize money evenly!" As he forces out a fake laugh at his friends' ridiculous words, Steve remembers that his fists hold the power to carve out a new future for him.

Although grateful to his friends, Steve turns down their offer to train in the mountains like fighters of old and instead begins his own search for a brand-new fighting style.

The bell for round two has just rung.