Fighting mad in Stockton
national sport called mixed martial arts taking hold in a city once crazy for boxing
Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer
(07-30) 04:00 PDT Stockton - --
The spectators crowding the Stockton Arena were so whooped-up on hometown pride Saturday night they cheered when a shot of city hall flashed on the huge video monitors.
More applause followed in response to a clip of Nick Diaz, the 24-year-old Stockton mixed martial arts fighter who was about to step into the octagon-shaped cage for the nationally televised show "Saturday Night Fights" on CBS.
The moment Diaz took off his shirt and raised his gloved fists toward his opponent, the largely male audience spontaneously began chanting, "2-0-9, 2-0-9," the city's area code.
More than 7,000 people attended the second installment of CBS' attempt to lift mixed martial arts - known as cage fighting - into the strata of mainstream network sport. The decision to set the event in what ring announcers repeatedly referred to as "the heartland of California" was no accident.
In May, when the network aired the first telecast of the once-controversial sport in Newark, N.J., the show drew 6.5 million viewers, according to the A.C. Nielsen Co., delivering CBS a 271 percent increase in the 18-to-34 male demographic during that time slot. The show did particularly well in smaller markets. It was most popular in Oklahoma City, with 11.1 percent of all households tuning in, followed by Nashville (10.3), and New Orleans (9.7).
But it did far worse in the top six urban markets, including San Francisco, where it pulled only 2.1 percent of households, the second-lowest major-market rating after New York City.
"We follow the fans," said Doug DeLuca, executive chairman of ProElite Inc., parent company of the Elite Xtreme Combat fighting league. "Stockton is a great fighting town with a focused market, and without a lot of distractions to compete with on a Saturday night. ... A crowded arena makes good TV."
Stockton was once dubbed Fat City for its big amateur boxing scene. In the past 10 years, as mixed martial arts has become more popular, the city has witnessed the opening of about six gyms that cater to the newer fighting form.
Jake Shields, 29, a resident of San Francisco's Richmond District and one of the sport's top-ranked fighters in his weight class, drove the hour and a half to Stockton several times a week to train with Diaz. Shields, who co-owns a mixed martial arts gym in Daly City and has been fighting competitively for nine years, said he's witnessed quick growth in San Jose (where the promotion company Strikeforce has sold out the 10,000-seat San Jose Arena), Concord and Walnut Creek, but not as much in his hometown.
"I get recognized on the streets in Stockton," said Shields, who won the EliteXC (the familiar name for Elite Extreme Combat) welterweight champion's belt Saturday evening after choking his opponent into submission. "But not so much in the city."
The CBS show, DeLuca said, is trying to bridge the gap between knowledgeable fans - who've had to pony up as much as $45 on Pay Per View for the best fights - and the uneducated viewers who are tuning in for the first time.
The result has been a little messy, DeLuca conceded.
For the inaugural show in May, a once-homeless street fighter from Florida named Kimbo Slice, who was most famous for appearing in YouTube clips brawling for cash in backyards, was instantly cast as the main event, thanks to his Internet fame, not his martial arts ability.
The use of an Internet star to promote the sport smacked of gimmick to serious fans. CBS was playing up the raw and dated "blood sport" angle and underplaying the technique, training and strategy of the athletes.
"We heard them loud and clear," DeLuca said. "They didn't like the pomp and circumstance, the frills. So we removed that aspect. We learned."
For the Stockton event, the pyrotechnics were removed, but small-town rough times were part of the telecast's narrative. Stockton recently received a No. 1 ranking among homeowner foreclosure rates in the United States, and even the downtown Sheraton Hotel, where the fighters and production team stayed, announced its impending closure last week because of the economic downturn.
At the prefight press conference, a reporter asked Diaz if he thought Stockton was a good place to hold a nationally televised mixed martial arts fight. "Stockton's a great fighting town," Diaz said. "I'm sure if you drive around here long enough, you might see one on the side of the road."
During the Diaz profile televised before his fight, the athlete is shown walking shirtless down a desolate street. Diaz has been cast as one of the sport's more despised characters, known for his taunting of opponents and ungracious middle-fingered salutes at hostile crowds.
But Diaz is beloved in Stockton, the kind of fighter who punches himself in the face a few times during his warm-ups. Video shots that captured his self-punching routine sent the Arena into a frenzy.
After Diaz knocked out his opponent in the second round, he shouted into the microphone, "Stockton is where the real fighters are at."
To watch the fight between Nick Diaz and Thomas "Wildman" Denny, go to links.sfgate.com/ZEIC. For a video that explains the rules of mixed martial arts, see links.sfgate.com/ZEID.
