I am reading through the Fight! RPG right now, which is supposed to be especially for this kind of game and has some supplements coming out soon for fatalities, etc. and it looks right now like it might be the optimal choice. As for characters, I was initially going to have the players play the iconic characters present in the video game since we are essentially playing the tournament and the storyline of the current game.

ill have to think about whether im interested in that

Yeah, I'm not sure I'd want custom characters jacking the plot and possibly winning the tournament.

i don't want to use a script, so i'm out.

It is not a script. It is simply using the characters inherent in the game and playing out a tournament to see who wins. I don't have time to build a bunch of custom characters. It is a mini campaign to simply play out the tournament.

Peace out to you.

I'm actually thinking BRP could do this quite easily, especially with the Dragon Lines supplement. Check out Dragon Lines at: http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?cPath=37&products_id=5087

BRP is easy, intuitive, and would work well with this setting.

I would strongly recommend against SFRPG. I've played it, I've run it, and it's just not a good system.