Ramon Dekkers: Highlights of A Great

A snap of our fingers and a moment passes, and just like that... He's gone... Death is something we are all aware of but we all think it's suppose to happen naturally, as we grow old. Dekkers has left us all asking "Why..." And of course, none of us know the answer. We can only hope that his passing had some kind of meaning, that he was taken from us because he was needed somewhere else for a greater cause. But we will never know. What we do know is in his passing, many want to know how it happened, how did this great, strong man die... Those questions will be answered in the weeks to come, but for now, we feel it's more important to remind everyone here, how this Legend became such, and tell you just a little bit about how he lived...

Ramon Dekkers was born in Breda, North Brabant, the Netherlands. He began learning martial arts around 1986 at age 12, studying judo for a few months. He then started boxing for a year. In 1986, at the age of 16 he first walked into Cor Hemmers Gym in Breda. As soon as he saw Muay Thai he knew this is what he wanted to do. Hemmers is a Dutch kickboxing trainer associated with the Golden Glory gym in Breda, Netherlands. Along with training Dekkers, he has trained numerous World Champions and contenders in both kickboxing and mixed martial arts including Heath Herring, Stefan Leko, Alistair Overeem, Bas Rutten, Gökhan Saki and Semmy Schilt.

Hemmers saw great talent in Dekkers as he had naturally explosive power and after a few months felt that he was ready to fight. During Dekkers early days of training his mother brought him to the gym and dropped him off every day, and picked him up after training. During Dekkers' training, Hemmers became more and more involved with his mother, and the two eventually married.

Dekkers had his first fight at the age of 16 and won by knockout. This bout was matched at approximately 56 kilos (123 lbs). For the first part of his career he was managed by Clovis Depretz who also managed Rob Kaman. In the twilight of his career Cor Hemmers was his manager. Ramon had his first international contest against Richard Nam of France. Dekkers lost the fight on points but Nam was European Champion at the time. At the age of 18, Dekkers was awarded his first title shot was on November 15th 1987. He fought Ramkisoen from the respected Chakuiriki Gym trained by Tom Harinck. Dekkers won this fight by knockout with a high kick in round 2 winning the Dutch Featherweight A-Class Title. 

Dekkers was one of the biggest Western legends of Muay Thai with over 200 fights to his name. During a 20 year fight career he was an 8 time World Champion. What made him a Legend though was not the "Titles" he won, but "Who" he fought. He fought in Thailand in the top stadiums of Lumpinee and Rajdamnern against the Thai's own champions. Not only did he beat a lot of them but often when he beat them it was also by knockout! As well as fighting the top Thais, he was a true warrior and would fight two times a week if someone challenged him. Many of his losses were on points as he often took fights too close together. He soon became known as "The Diamond".

RIP Ramon Dekkers, a great that was taken too early from this world.