Then it was time to fight Gerald Mamadeus on 1-6-1997,
a full contact fighter who was starting Muay Thai as well. Like so many
others, Mamadeus wanted to have this chance to fight against the
greatest legend of modern Muay Thai. Gerald Mamadeus was a great fighter
himself, but he was still outclassed in some ways.
Even though Ramon had been forced to change his style to that of a
different fighter, to kick mainly with his left kick and to use a
different fighting stance, it was right around this time that he fought
Mamadeus and it was right around this time that that new style started
to really come into effect for Ramon.
Dekkers still, against orders from doctors and from most sane people,
kept kicking with that right leg because some habits are hard to break.
He tried that new style, the new style he was working on. But it was
that old, tried and true style that he had used so many times that
helped him find a way to defeat the “young lions” coming up in the
ranks.
One can just imagine the pain he must have felt delivering
every right kick. And the kick was so natural, the movement that he had been
practicing for so many years. It didn’t even stop automatically. He still
used it. And still he fought his fight against a very dangerous Mamadeus, a
wonderful great fighter himself. Mamadeus could not take the low kicks that
were probably just as painful to Ramon as to his opponent. However, it is a
rule in Thai Boxing that the fighter starts with low kicks and then follows
to finish with punching techniques. Ramon destroyed him by leg kicks in
Round 3. He then hit Mamadeus in his head and the referee stopped the fight.
