Taisaku Okada has revealed what Abel used to look at the planning stage at the Japanese Street Fighter IV blog.  The idea was to create a small character who was unassumingly strong in the Judo style. 

That's supposed to be a guy??!? Talk about a trap.

The feet always give the game away.  It is typical of male characters to look slightly feminine, and he is French after all.

That was definitely a change for the better. If Abel would've looked like that, it would have made the game 25% more Japanese.

lol google translate

Okada:
  "Abel is "stronger than stiffness soft" to have sex is the mean, "

Bridget-ed
 
Thank Gawd that saved us from oodles upon oodles of creepy fanart or worse still, fanfiction

So what if Abel was meant to be a woman. Oh, wait, what? He wasn't? Well, then WTF

This article actually seems pretty interesting. Unfortunately, It's practically unreadable through this automatic translation.
Kind of a long shot, but if anyone here knows some japanese and would be willing to "fansub" this, it'll be really cool :D

Man, i'm an Abel player and I love him the way he is, but this design is actually pretty interesting.  Shades of Makoto, IMO.

I actually prefer that character to the current Abel, he's ok now... just seems a little... dull

" lol google translate

Okada:   "Abel is "stronger than stiffness soft" to have sex is the mean, " "

I like this Abel. It's relevant to my int... ahem.
 
Edit: Yes, I know that's still a man.

Stronger than stiffness soft happens after you pull an Epic Mickey.

That's a lot more cooler.