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Ramon Dekkers: The Beginning
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| Peter Smit, Cor Hemmers, Ramon Dekkers and Pieter Hoovers (Thailand 27 November 1990 Team Holland) |
Ramon got involved in the martial arts around 1986. He visited a gym in Breda where he saw Thai boxing and liked what he saw. He started training in that gym. The gym’s trainer was Cor Hemmers. He was the first and only trainer Ramon had. Cor remembers him as a little blonde guy, 15 or 16 years old, that came into his gym He had done some general boxing before and then he said, “I want to start Thai-boxing.” He trained about 3 months – his mother dropped him every day, brought him to the gym and picked him up after training. And then, Cor thought, this is a very explosive guy with some real talent. He saw that Ramon had potential and could build up to a good fighter. Hemmers had been beginning a team. He had no real fights by that time – everybody was new and he thought well, since this guy was 16 years old, maybe they could make a first fight with him – a Thai boxing fight. So, he discussed that with Ramon and with Ramon’s mother.
That was also the way that Cor got to know Ramon’s mother. He felt she was a very attractive woman and they started dating. They fell in love, married, and that is how Ramon became his trainer’s stepson. Cor married Ramon’s mother and kept on training him for his first fight.
In that first fight, Ramon won in a spectacular KO at only 16 years old. He fought a good boxer with a good boxing history, but he knocked him out. Cor immediately saw that he had good power compared to his weight – he was a very light guy at that time, about 55/56 kilos – but he had a punch like maybe a 70 kilo guy. And then came his 2nd fight, his 3rd fight and so on. He kept on knocking people out so his name was growing in the Muay Thai world although he was still a young guy. Then he grew up into a very spectacular fighter – all his fights were explosive and always spectacular.
Ramon Dekkers vs Richard Nam
In the beginning of Ramon’s career he and Hemmers were busy with his training, and with his career. Because they also lived together, even when they were away from the gym, they discussed techniques and training methods. And then they came into Paris, after a couple of fights. It was 21-3-'87 and Ramon had to do a B-class professional fight in France but his opponent didn’t show up. Ramon was walking around, disappointed because he had no opponent, and he saw a guy walking around. He told Cors that this looked like someone that would be a good opponent for him. Cors asked the promoters if their fighter would fight Ramon. And so they made the deal. Later, there was a lot of music and applause because Ramon’s opponent turned out to be Richard Nam – the European champion at the time!
Ramon Dekkers: Dutch champion
Soon Hemmers asked Ramon to do his first title fight – it was for the Dutch A-class title. But unfortunately, a fighter had to be 18 years before fighting an A-class fight in the Muay Thai Federation at that time (this is still the rule). So, Cor talked with the Federation and they decided to let Ramon fight. Ramon was then 17 years old. He fought with the champion of Holland. At that time it was Ramkisoen from the Chakuriki Gym. So on 15-11-1987, Ramon knocked that guy out – not with a punch but with a high kick. It was also very spectacular because Ramon was becoming very famous because of his boxing. But in this fight, he started using his kicking abilities and that was his first kicking knockout. In addition, he became the Dutch champion at the age of 17.
European Title
By 1988, Ramon was already famous. A big promoter in Amsterdam soon asked Cor Hemmers to have Ramon in their big event. Cor told them if they wanted Ramon, they’d have to give him Richard Nam in a challenge for the title. They agreed and made a contract. The rematch was in Amsterdam and in that fight Ramon knocked him down in round 4 with a left hook and a punch on his body. It was 27-02-88. He knocked out Richard Nam and became the European Champion in Thai boxing.
The Morris Brothers
Ramon fought against an English opponent by the name of Kevin Morris. Morris was not very confident and did a lot of running around. Ramon was in his development stage – trial and error time – and was making his on the job training. For example, he used a spinning hook kick in this fight and other craziness. But, Dekkers gave Morris some good punches and some very good kicks. The judges gave him the decision in that fight against Kevin Morris. This win gave him the European Title (NKBB) on 14 April 1988 in Eindhoven, Holland.
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| Kevin Morris |
There was also another Morris - Mike Morris, Kevin’s brother. Ramon fought Mike Morris 19-06-1998 in Amsterdam, and was the winner on points. Mike was fighting in the place of his brother who was injured. They were rather good boxers. But kickboxing was an entirely different matter.
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| Mike Morris |
Ramon Dekkers vs. Joao Vieira
In 1988, a young Ramon Dekkers suffered his first KO loss in a fight against Joao Vieira, Every fighter loses eventually, but greatness in contact sports is not accomplished by any single fight but rather through a remarkable career. The same happened to the great Muhammad Ali. So, like all great champions, Ramon refused to give up and came back stronger for his next fights.
Ramon Dekkers vs. Gilbert Ballantine
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| Gilbert 'The Bullterrier' Ballantine |
Their 1st fight, took place on 8-10-1989 in the Jaap Edenhal in Amsterdam. Ramon lost by decision. Ramon Dekkers had been fighting in Thailand a long time. Actually, he had been fighting only Thais. He had been fighting the Thai way. This fight with G. Ballantine was also a fight with elbows. Ramon thought that it was going to be an easy fight for him. After all it was with elbows and Thai rules. Ramon fought like a Thai in that fight – kicks, not so many punches but only kicks to his body. Ramon had a cut on his eye but it was not from Gilbert. One week before that fight, he was training with someone in his gym and he got cut with an elbow.
As if the injury was not enough there was Gilbert’s unorthodox fighting style. That really caused people alarm in that Dekkers was familiar in fighting with the Thais but now Gilbert was giving him angles, giving him crazy moves, giving him all different kinds of things. And even though Dekkers had control of the fight for some time, that annoying injury one week before this fight came back to haunt him. Controversy surrounded the decision in this fight as Ramon lost; but Gilbert had done quite a bit of good work in this fight with his crazy rangy, wild, unorthodox spinning techniques. Ramon also gave Gilbert enough problems – especially with his elbow. Ballantine did get the win on this particular night but they were going to see each other again.
First World Title
World Title (IMTF – Dekkers vs. Nangpon)
Nangpon did his best to survive for 5 rounds. Ramon almost knocked him out with a left hook. He got an 8 count 2 times with him. Ramon kicked him in the face. He punched him in the head; he kicked and punched him on his liver but Nangpon was very strong, very tough. He didn’t go down easily.
Ramon really wanted to win that fight. He really wanted to show them that a guy from Holland could be strong or stronger than one of the Thais.
It was Dekkers at his most beautiful. It was Dekkers with that punching and Dekkers with that beautiful left hook that put the tough Thai on the deck. And Dekkers was fighting in Amsterdam. But at the same time, the Thai television insisted to broadcast this fight live to Bangkok to Thailand. There were Thai referees; there were Thai commercials even in the cornerposts of the ring. This is because all of Thailand believed that he would not succeed in beating Nangpon. But what he did was incredible. Dekkers was in great shape. He showed a variety of attacks but it was those “punches in bunches” that really had the Thai reeling. To the Thai’s credit, he did not get knocked out clean, even though in most of the fight he was dominated by Dekkers. But Dekkers had a few surprises for him in the form of kicks to the face. And soon, there he was, winning the title and being hugged by his trainer and mentor Cor Hemmers. He was the new World Champion.
When Ramon first knocked the champion down with a good left hook, all Thailand was quiet. As they saw on television this small blonde guy from Holland almost knocking out their Lumpinee champion, the way was open. They started to invite Ramon and his team to Thailand. And the rest is history.
Nangpon (2nd Fight)
Ramon went to Thailand for a rematch with Nangpon in Lumpinee only two months after their first fight, on 24-04-1990. As might be expected, he lost that fight on points.
The Thais had asked him if he wanted to bring the belt with him. He didn’t but it was a very good fight. It was his first time in Thailand, fighting with elbows and using their rules. The temperature when he arrived was 40 degrees Celsius. He had trained at home, but had only one week before the fight to train in Thailand – and in that heat.
As mentioned before, in Thailand you can’t win on points if you are a foreigner. You can see fights where the foreigner fought for 5 rounds and won at least 4 of the 5 rounds but still would lose the fight on points.
Well you can imagine the difficulties Ramon was facing there: the temperature, the climate, their way of scoring the fight and of course the Thais wanted him to lose because he had defeated their national pride. Ramon had to be better in their national sport than their fighters. So, he had to score a knockout and that was not always possible.
It’s a funny thing that under Muay Thai rules, the kicks and the knees are counted more in the scoring. So, Dekkers had his own unique way of imposing his will but the Thai was playing to the crowd and Dekkers, even though he was giving everything he had, was not going to get his decision this particular night. The Thai was doing everything he could to keep that fight within the rules and within the scoring of the native culture and within the scoring of Muay Thai itself. And even though Dekkers tried some very fancy techniques, the Thai only seemed amused. As you can imagine, the judges awarded the victory to the Thai as Dekkers, in his heart, probably wanted some more of that man again. Did the crowd think that Dekkers had won? Nobody knows. But many people around the world thought that he had.
Ramon Dekkers vs. Cherry S. Wanich
The Thais still wanted to have their revenge so they put their new Thai champion up to fight Ramon. Οn 27-05-1990 he fought Cherry S. Wanich in Holland. This Thai he beat on K.O. in round 1. Ramon had seen a fight of boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard a couple of weeks before the fight with Cherry and had seen a nice boxing combination of Sugar Ray’s. The combination was really fast and Ramon wanted to try it on Cherry. It worked out very well. The Thai champion was knocked out badly. He couldn’t even stand up by himself.
Just as Ramon was developing that attitude of kicking like a Thai, he introduced the Thais to the punches of western boxing with that devastating knockout over Cherry. Dekkers had done it again – done it his way – done it with that left hook at the tail end of a punishing combination borrowed from one legend and used by the legend himself. And the hometown crowd roared its appreciation. People were expecting him to be a kicker but then he proved once again he was very much a puncher as well. The Thais had not seen these kinds of punches before. They were used to the knees. They were used to the elbows. They were used to the high kicks. But it was with that ice cold blooded efficiency that he set up those punches that he had been so well schooled in under the tutelage of Cor Hemmers. And he devastated the Thai champion with that final hook uppercut. Dekkers was now becoming a legend around the world and the Thais wanted him beaten badly. As he went to pay his respects to the fallen champion, Dekkers was as always the consummate sportsman. He had nothing personal against the Thais, but the country of Thailand wanted a bit of payback.
Ramon Dekkers vs. Coban
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| Coban |
In 1991, the two fighters collided for the first time in France. In Paris, Ramon just wasn’t himself. He had a lot of personal problems and had not been able to train for at least 3 weeks before the fight. Coban quickly pounced on Dekkers, scoring a knockout within the first minute of the first round. Coban did not know at the time that the same would happen to him soon.
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