Ramon "Diamond" Dekkers

Even if you can speak no other words of the Thai language, most European and American visitors to Thailand will quickly become familiar with the Thai word “farang” (often mispronounced even by Thais) as “falang” –“farang” with a slightly trilled 'r' is the correct pronunciation.) It's basically used to describe Caucasians. It is not a racist thing.

Ramon Dekkers is probably the most respected “farang” Thai boxer of all times. Dekkers had the guts to go to Thailand and kick butt directly at the famous Lumpinee stadium. He kicked butt but also got his butt kicked. But no matter what, he stood up there and showed that the Dutch fighters are a menace.

He is probably the most respected foreigner in Thailand – fighting like the Thais. He fought them all – he fought them on their rules, in their land, in their rings – and he beat them. He was beaten sometimes himself - mostly on points - but he never turned down a fight. The Thai fighters have always and will always respect Ramon Dekkers for one thing: he never turned down a challenge. Dekkers in turn has always respected the Thai fighters. All these guys are the true champions of the sport.

Most professional fighters often avoid some fights in order not to ruin their perfect record. That does not necessarily mean that they are afraid of their opponent; sometimes they know that they are not ready to fight a dangerous opponent because of an injury, or they want to study him more. Some even wait for the opponent to pass his prime and fight him after he has had his share of injuries and loses. Ramon was not one of these fighters. If there were a world championship as far as courage and heart are concerned, Ramon Dekkers would be a true champion.

When Ramon knocked the Thai champion Nangpon out with a good left hook, everybody in Thailand was quiet as they saw on television this small blonde guy from Holland knocking out their Lumpinee champion. Suddenly the way was open. They started to invite Ramon and his team to Thailand. And then, it got crazy. Ramon became so famous in Thailand – there were police escorts when he arrived from the airport. And he was a hero in Thailand because he fought a lot of tough Thai champions and he beat them. He lost sometimes because of his failure to win on points in the big stadium. As his trainer, Cor Hemmers had a lot of discussions with the people there but they explained to him that this was their way of judging. They claimed that they only look at who makes the best Muay Thai techniques – who makes the toughest Muay Thai techniques. And the one who makes the best Muay Thai technique – it’s always the Thai fighter when it comes to a decision. Thai-fighters have the advantage. So it was very difficult to win on points. But the fans liked Ramon – they really loved Ramon and when he was fighting, everybody was watching on television. Fifty million people were watching his fights – taxicabs were stopping on the road. It’s hard to imagine actually what was going on at the time that Ramon was fighting in Thailand. The Thai people hold such reverence for him that he has a strange nickname - "The Diamond" - as Ramon is an extremely polished Thai fighter. In Thailand, great Thai boxers are referred to as "diamonds." He was the first “farang” (foreigner) in Thai history to ever win Fighter of the Year in Thailand in 1992.

Ramon was very happy and honoured to have had this happen. It was a great reward after all the years of hard work and labour. He has surpassed legendary Rob Kaman and Toshio Fujiwara, both of whom were very well respected “farang” (foreigner) fighters in Thailand.

This man is respected around the world, except in North America where he is a well-kept secret! He is relatively unknown except by the Muay Thai fans. During his era there was nobody in North America who could beat this man, but the American Martial Arts media turned a blind eye to Muay Thai and concentrated on Full Contact Rules competition or Kickboxing competition. Dekkers is respected in Thailand but there has been not a single North American fighter who was that respected in Thailand in a similar manner. Forget the fluff that you read in magazines about fighters like Benny Urquidez meaning anything in Thailand. That is straight PR by their management and it is not the truth. Benny Urquidez was a great kickboxer and a legend but he was not ring proven in Thailand.

Thai boxers visiting the U.S. are surprised that most people have never heard of Ramon Dekkers or Sakmongkol. Instead, names like Bill Wallace, Joe Lewis, and Benny Urquidez are often associated with the best in the sport. Wallace, Lewis, and Urquidez may be the best in full-contact karate or kickboxing, but they were definitely not the best in what the world considers to be Thaiboxing or Muay Thai. As a matter of fact, kickboxing to most parts of the world is now known almost exclusively as Muay Thai. I know the many fine Muay Thai practitioners in the United States would rather see their art shown in its full glory. Until the competition promoters accept what is truly the meaning of World Championship, countries that choose to compete at their own level rather than at a global level will continue to lack the experience needed to produce true champions. If the truth is accepted, then you can build from there and eventually reach the level of the true best. Holland is great at Muay Thai because they choose to compete at the global level and they choose to learn from their defeat rather than make up their own world champions in order to misrepresent the sport to their people. They do not seem to hide behind some organization (WKA or ISKA) that chooses to protect its status quo by producing its own world champions with its own stable of fighters.

Ramon is also not very well known in Holland, at least not as much as he is in Thailand and Japan. He said it was kind of strange not being very well known in his own country, but he is used to it by now. In the beginning it was very hard. When he walked on the streets in Thailand, everybody recognized him – and asked for autographs and pictures - while in Holland this did not happen so often.

Ramon thinks that people in Holland have a wrong image of kick boxers – they think that they are all criminals and do bad things. Ramon Dekkers believes that the athletes in the sport train very hard and it is a shame they do not get the same honors as other athletes. In his opinion kickboxers are top ‘sportsmen’ training hard, training every day, watching what they eat and how they eat, not staying out late etc. They are very serious, training harder than football players. He hopes that in the future all the athletes in this sport get their due and will be famous in their homeland. Hopefully, this can be done through good promotion of the sport by all promoters