Ramon Dekkers Highlight

shincheckin

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Lets take a quick blast from the past with the Original Iron Life Ramon Dekkers Highlight. This was somewhat hard to find online so I decided to upload it to prevent it from being lost. If this doesnt motivate you what will? I used to watch this daily before going to the gym. Ramon is also my favorite fighter.

 
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Propaganda

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Just so you know he didn't actually get fighter of the year. He probably got foreign fighter of the year or something. Great fighter and otherwise great video though!
 
is this the original video that originated the Ramon Dekkers internet legend? that quote at the beginning is classic.
 
Its really not about winning or loosing, its how you play the game and that is exactly what he is well known for and why he was respected by the thai community. Its how he fought that made him famous.
 
Its really not about winning or loosing, its how you play the game and that is exactly what he is well known for and why he was respected by the thai community. Its how he fought that made him famous.
No doubt, but he's also surrounded in mysticism as being the greatest Muay Thai fighter to ever live which is far from the truth and is disrespectful to the Thais that really are deserving of that praise.

He is a big figure for the international community and someone for us white boys to look up to. I was lucky enough to attend one of his seminars not long before he passed away. Got to shake his hand, haven't washed it since...
 
is this the original video that originated the Ramon Dekkers internet legend? that quote at the beginning is classic.

It might have escalated the legend, but since the 90's it has been Dekkers and Kaman as the greatest fighters ever. The best Thais are practically anonymous today, so just imagine what it was like 10-20 years ago. You know, the mindset is that it's not worth the time to get a grip of, so the greatest fighters become those that are relatable and, if enough people say/spread it, it is viewed as fact.
 
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Its really not about winning or loosing, its how you play the game and that is exactly what he is well known for and why he was respected by the thai community. Its how he fought that made him famous.

The problem with this belief is that Dekkers wasn't particularly unique in this way. Only on his record you can find similarly aggressive fighters, yet they're mostly unknown, even though they beat Dekkers and had greater careers. I'm not saying this of you, but I'd think if ethnicity wasn't a reason for the fevered support of the guy (which is often said), it would also be that they would have the same admiration for his opponents. Superlek, a featherweight, beat Dekkers and is every bit as responsible for making those awesome fights; Sakmongkol was clobbered by a blown-up Kongthoranee, and around the same time, at barely 18-year-old, he gave Dekkers a muay thai lesson. It tends to be quiet on that side of history.
 
The problem with this belief is that Dekkers wasn't particularly unique in this way. Only on his record you can find similarly aggressive fighters, yet they're mostly unknown, even though they beat Dekkers and had greater careers. I'm not saying this of you, but I'd think if ethnicity wasn't a reason for the fevered support of the guy (which is often said), it would also be that they would have the same admiration for his opponents. Superlek, a featherweight, beat Dekkers and is every bit as responsible for making those awesome fights; Sakmongkol was clobbered by a blown-up Kongthoranee, and around the same time, at barely 18-year-old, he gave Dekkers a muay thai lesson. It tends to be quiet on that side of history.

Yeah I have watched every fight of his online at least once. I recall him loosing quite a bit to the thais, but still gave good fights. To be the first foreigner to go over and do all that, and even just compete with the thais, and the skill level that they are at, you had to have balls of steel. Its a tremendous story of heart and courage.
 
I always thought it was the English language documentary him and his team produced that really ramped up his popularity and made him sound unstoppable. Though to their credit they showed him get beaten clearly by Orono iirc.
 
I always thought it was the English language documentary him and his team produced that really ramped up his popularity and made him sound unstoppable. Though to their credit they showed him get beaten clearly by Orono iirc.

yeah him vs orono is classic golden age muay thai. The teeps to the face back and forth!
 

We have two common points people go to when discussing the influence and greatness of Dekkers:

1: Dekkers inspired us fellow whites to take up muay thai.

This on its own isn't particularly significant because few whites have gone on to be truly relevant fighters. And "truly relevant" is used very loosely, as none of them have come close to matching what endless amounts of Thais have done in the same time by fighting a schedule of 7+ quality opponents, year after year.

I don't know what he means when he writes about how we're in the golden era of the western fighter. There's not... ONE of them who is consistently successful against legitimately good Thais on a somewhat equal footing. In fact, this has always been the case. The truth of "competing" with Thais: "Oh boy, this Thai came over to our land and our fighter took him to a hometown decision and only needed a 2 or 3 divisions weight advantage. This heroic feat will be celebrated for centuries to come."

2: Dekkers went to Thailand and fought good Thais in the stadiums and because of this he is a legend.

This is true. The problem here is that people struggle to grasp that being legendary is variant to greatness.

According to his available records, Dekkers went 6-17 against good Thais (Thais that I know of by name and know to have been good) and 13-21 against Thais overall. He went 5-7 against fighters who would be considered good non-Thais.

.261 vs good Thais
.382 vs all Thais
.417 vs good non-Thais

In what bizarro world is this the resume of one of the most celebrated and so-called greatest fighters ever? Hell, I'd like to hear an argument for how Dekkers is greater than someone like Yodtuanthong Petyindee. Why aren't people going bananas over him? Oh, wait, I know why. And it's what ties all of this together.
 
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We have two common points people go to when discussing the influence and greatness of Dekkers:

1: Dekkers inspired us fellow whites to take up muay thai.

This on its own isn't particularly significant because few whites have gone on to be truly relevant fighters. And "truly relevant" is used very loosely, as none of them have come close to matching what endless amounts of Thais have done in the same time by fighting a schedule of 7+ quality opponents, year after year.

I don't know what he means when he writes about how we're in the golden era of the western fighter. There's not... ONE of them who is consistently successful against legitimately good Thais on a somewhat equal footing. In fact, this has always been the case. The truth of "competing" with Thais: "Oh boy, this Thai came over to our land and our fighter took him to a hometown decision and only needed a 2 or 3 divisions weight advantage. This heroic feat will be celebrated for centuries to come."

2: Dekkers went to Thailand and fought good Thais in the stadiums and because of this he is a legend.

This is true. The problem here is that people struggle to grasp that being legendary is variant to greatness.

According to his available records, Dekkers went 6-17 against good Thais (Thais that I know of by name and know to have been good) and 13-21 against Thais overall. He went 5-7 against fighters who would be considered good non-Thais.

.261 vs good Thais
.382 vs all Thais
.417 vs good non-Thais

In what bizarro world is this the resume of one of the most celebrated and so-called greatest fighters ever? Hell, I'd like to hear an argument for how Dekkers is greater than someone like Yodtuanthong Petyindee. Why aren't people going bananas over him? Oh, wait, I know why. And it's what ties all of this together.

where are you getting these records from? I dont understand what you mean with 261 382 417

According to his available records, Dekkers went 6-17 against good Thais (Thais that I know of by name and know to have been good) and 13-21 against Thais overall. He went 5-7 against fighters who would be considered good non-Thais.

.261 vs good Thais
.382 vs all Thais
.417 vs good non-Thais
 
Those are winning percentages. He's not even .500 against Thais which is 50/50. Hard to be the greatest of a sport when you don't even break .500...
 
where are you getting these records from? I dont understand what you mean with 261 382 417

Those are ratios, not a record. wins / losses.

But those numbers are still subjective as he's basing "good opponents" on his own judgement of who he considers good.
 
How does JWP record against Thais compare to Dekkers?
 
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