Ramon Dekkers Highlight

He also speaks a lot about his fights and his time in Thailand in his documentary Blessed with Venom, his interview with London Real, and in the few podcasts he's done with Joe Rogan.









I watched blessed with venum, I dont recall the exact details, but I think JWP went over to thailand when he had around 20 fights or so. He than started regularly competing with thais with 100's of fights. That right there is balls of steel. whether your the best or not, or wether the thai you are fighting is lumpinee champ or not, fighting someone with that much experience over yourself is courageous. even if that thai is a "nobody" a "nobody" with 100 fights is still no joke.

Im using the number 100 roughly.

I got to meet and train with J-Dub

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Did he post here or on the mma section? Cause we are assholes here but the posters in the ufc section are straight up troglodytes.
He posted here, but people couldn't help but complain about his commentary. I still think he's the best Kickboxing commentator ever...
 
He posted here, but people couldn't help but complain about his commentary. I still think he's the best Kickboxing commentator ever...

much better than blinky rodriguez or anybody else currently for damn sure!

its like this now

 
They both had common opponents in Superlek and Orono, but the circumstances were quite different. Dekkers fought them when they were around their prime and at a more appropriate weight, whereas Parr fought them at something like welterweight or super welterweight and at a time when they were on the downside.

Something of Dekkers' career that's not fabricated is the part where he fought many of the best, and the body of work from just competition, is not all that close. Though it is true that Parr was at a disadvantage because the talent thins as you move up to those weights and the interest (within the muay thai world in Thailand) isn't the same as at 105-140.
There is a few things that Dekkers did that no one has replicated since: fight top Thais who were in their prime consistently, some of whom had a significant size advantage, all the thais he fought took it seriously and trained hard, fought under their rules and scoring, didn't complain when he lost.
 
fought under their rules and scoring, didn't complain when he lost.
You had me up until that point. Dekkers and his camp almost acted like all of his decision losses were because of bias judging. There was an older documentary that I believe @SuperLuigi eluded to earlier in the thread where they try to make this case.
 
There is a few things that Dekkers did that no one has replicated since: fight top Thais who were in their prime consistently, some of whom had a significant size advantage, all the thais he fought took it seriously and trained hard, fought under their rules and scoring, didn't complain when he lost.

It's been replicated by many hundreds of Thais.

What fighters were significantly bigger? Dekkers was a lightweight and super lightweight at the time, and most of his Thai opponents were featherweights, super featherweights, and lightweights.

Of course he fought under their rules. What's the sport called?
 
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It's been replicated by many hundreds of Thais.

What fighters were significantly bigger?

Of course he fought under their rules. What's the sport called?
I was saying Dekkers is the foreigner i most respect. I respect a lot of great thai fighters aswell.
Jomhod, Den, sakmongkol.
A lot of other foreigners tried to bring thais to their countries and change the scoring/rules.
Dekkers never seemed to object to a decision in the ring. I always thought giving out about decisions was more his camp, trainers.
Why do so many thais seem to respect him?
 
I was saying Dekkers is the foreigner i most respect. I respect a lot of great thai fighters aswell.
Jomhod, Den, sakmongkol.
A lot of other foreigners tried to bring thais to their countries and change the scoring/rules.
Dekkers never seemed to object to a decision in the ring. I always thought giving out about decisions was more his camp, trainers.
Why do so many thais seem to respect him?

Three fighters had a significant size advantage? Three? And you can take Sakmongkol off that list. He was a super featherweight at the time he fought Dekkers.

They respect him because he was a good fighter and one of the only foreigners they're likely to have ever heard of.
 
Three fighters had a significant size advantage? Three? And you can take Sakmongkol off that list. He was a super featherweight at the time he fought Dekkers.

They respect him because he was a good fighter and one of the only foreigners they're likely to have ever heard of.
Name another foreign fighter who has fought two top thais in their prime who had a size advantage
 
Name another foreign fighter who has fought two top thais in their prime who had a size advantage
And sakmongol had a size advantage not a
Three fighters had a significant size advantage? Three? And you can take Sakmongkol off that list. He was a super featherweight at the time he fought Dekkers.

They respect him because he was a good fighter and one of the only foreigners they're likely to have ever heard of.
I believe they respect him because he was a true fighter who never shyed away from a challenge.
He might of lost more than he won but he was fighting a muderer's row.
The list of great thai and foreigners he fought is unmatched among foreigners in my opinion. Couple that with a busy schedule comparable to a thai in his younger years. That is why he is the foreigner i most respect. That doesn't mean he was the best.
 
I'm surprised no one has brought up Damien Alamos yet. And as for Western fighters who actually fight top Thais- Pinca
 
theres always going to be "politics" in the judging and scoring and you could also argue in the gambling. Biased judging all of the time, no. Biased judging some of the time, possible. One thing that I dont think anyone has mentioned is that when you are the "challenger" you cannot just tie with "champ" but must beat him. So if you put up a very close fight, and it goes to a decision, you most likely will not get the decision.
 
I'm surprised no one has brought up Damien Alamos yet. And as for Western fighters who actually fight top Thais- Pinca

I think Alamos retired in his early twenties didnt he?

Andrei Kulebin is another top foreigner. havent heard much about him lately though.
 
Name another foreign fighter who has fought two top thais in their prime who had a size advantage

What does this matter? I acknowledge Dekkers was a good fighter, but I'm just tired of hearing about what he wasn't. Alright, he was a great foreigner, now what? Who's the greatest Japanese basketball player?

And did Jomhod and Den really have "significant" size advantages? Jomhod essentially fought his whole career as a top fighter at 135-140, same weight as Dekkers. Den was probably about the same.
 
theres always going to be "politics" in the judging and scoring and you could also argue in the gambling. Biased judging all of the time, no. Biased judging some of the time, possible. One thing that I dont think anyone has mentioned is that when you are the "challenger" you cannot just tie with "champ" but must beat him. So if you put up a very close fight, and it goes to a decision, you most likely will not get the decision.

He lost because he was bettered, not because he was screwed by favoritism. I mean, a huge chunk of fights are fought in a manner to where you could presume that if the losing fighter was a foreigner they would cry robbery, and his supporters would talk about how the Thais are corrupt and you can't win there. Literally every show at the stadiums has fights like these, but they're Thai vs Thai so nobody really cares.

Try this: when watching fights that end on points, imagine that the losing fighter is not Thai, but a foreigner. Would people be quick to YouTube and Facebook to leave comments about how he was robbed?

Ask 50 fans how they scored a Dekkers fight that he lost, and most of them will say something like "3-2 for Dekkers; 1,2 and 5." These are the people who carry the "he was robbed" belief. People who don't have any awareness of what they're watching or how it works.
 
He lost because he was bettered, not because he was screwed by favoritism. I mean, a huge chunk of fights are fought in a manner to where you could presume that if the losing fighter was a foreigner they would cry robbery, and his supporters would talk about how the Thais are corrupt and you can't win there. Literally every show at the stadiums has fights like these, but they're Thai vs Thai so nobody really cares.

Try this: when watching fights that end on points, imagine that the losing fighter is not Thai, but a foreigner. Would people be quick to YouTube and Facebook to leave comments about how he was robbed?

Ask 50 fans how they scored a Dekkers fight that he lost, and most of them will say something like "3-2 for Dekkers; 1,2 and 5." These are the people who carry the "he was robbed" belief. People who don't have any awareness of what they're watching or how it works.

Biased judging all of the time, no. Biased judging some of the time, possible.

im not disagreeing with you. sure he was beaten fair and square plenty of times.

take a look at the toby smith fight i posted earlier in this thread. It was in his home country so they gave it to him. It happens....... its not impossible that the same thing happened to dekkers a few times.


 
Biased judging all of the time, no. Biased judging some of the time, possible.

im not disagreeing with you. sure he was beaten fair and square plenty of times.

take a look at the toby smith fight i posted earlier in this thread. It was in his home country so they gave it to him. It happens....... its not impossible that the same thing happened to dekkers a few times.
All the fights i watched that dekkers lost to thais were completly fair. He was just outclassed and in quite a few of them hurt pretty badly.
He never really shook his head at decisions. He was exciting to watch and gave everthing to the sport. Sure he nearly lost his leg because of it at one point. I actually liked the way he didn't do a wai kru or have any sak yant tattoo's. But i think it was clear he repected his thai opponents.
If i was to compare him to a thai it would be someone like Porsanah Sitmonchai. Who has a lot of respect and fans in thailand and abroad because of his style and heart aswell.
 
I think Alamos retired in his early twenties didnt he?

Andrei Kulebin is another top foreigner. havent heard much about him lately though.
Yeah he teaches now actually only a few hours from me. Id forgotten about Kulebin.
 
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