WEDNESDAY, February 27th, 2013, AT 10:30 AM/ PST
"Every man
dies, not every man really lives."
Braveheart Movie, William Wallace
We ALL Lost A Legend Today...
Ramon "The Diamond" Dekkers
Passes
Today At Only 43
Steve Fossum, IKF President
Images
From Various Web Sources & Facebook
This is one of those times where someone's accomplishments
are in some ways, "Beyond Reality".
With this being said,
we can only hope that we do justice to an article that will try and explain to
everyone here, just what a true "LEGEND"
Ramon "The
Diamond" Dekkers
was to everyone who knew of him either
directly or indirectly around the world.
Earlier today, we lost this Legend who while in his hometown
of Breda past away. According to sources, Dekkers was training on his
bicycle (Not a Motorcycle, a regular bike) and he collapsed in a tunnel
after feeling light headed and never regained consciousness again.
A few
bystanders attempted to assist him using CPR before emergency services (R)
arrived who also attempted to revive him, but to no avail.
The final
determined cause of death was a heart attack.
TRAUMA HELICOPTER IN BREDA
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. Yet, like other greats such as Andy Hug 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. Nam and Dekkers rematched on February 27th, 1988 for the MTBN European Featherweight Title. This time Dekkers won the fight by knockout with a left hook, cross to body combination in the fourth round.
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".
On Sunday March 18th, 2001 he fought what he thought would be his Farewell-Retirement Fight against Marino Deflorin in Rotterdam, Netherlands, winning by TKO at 18 seconds of round 4 with his famous left hook. Throughout the bout, he controlled the fight, displaying the style and aggression he had been known for, for so many great years. After the fight, Dekkers joined the "Golden Glory" team members center stage for a finale. Rob Kaman came down the rampart, Golden Glory torch in hand, presenting it to Dekkers, who in turn passed it to each team member, as video clips of his victories were shown on the display screens.
After his retirement he kept himself busy training his two teams, Team Dekkers and Golden Glory. However, 4 years later he surprised the fighting world by agreeing upon a contract with K-1 to try mixed martial arts. Of course, Dekkers had never fought MMA, and took the fight by a few days notice. On March 26th, 2005 in Saitama, Japan he fought Genki Sudo who at the time had an impressive pro mma record of 11-2-1. The fight was on the Hero's 1 event. Sudo won the bout by Leglock Submission at 2:54 of round 1.
Prior to the MMA bout, Dekkers manager Bas Boon
also arranged at least one more standup fight on regular K-1 Rules. Dekkers
fought American Duane
Ludwig in a Superfight during the K-1 Max 2005 event. A
few days before the fight Dekkers injured himself, tearing a ligament in
his right shoulder. The entire fight he punched only with his left arm, so he
could not setup his famous boxing combinations. Nevertheless Dekkers
knocked Ludwig down in every round, and won the fight by decision.
K-1 2005 Ramon Dekkers Vs Duane Ludwig Video - Click HERE.
His final retirement was a Superfight against Joerie Mes at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2006 in Amsterdam on May 13th, 2006. After both fighters suffered knockdown in the second round, it was Mes who earned the decision victory. Immediately after the fight Dekkers took the microphone and announced his final retirement. After retiring he went back to Breda to continue to teach Muay Thai while also traveling the globe teaching seminars...
Dekkers was one of the first Dutch Kickboxers to really make an impact in Thailand. He was instrumental in helping the sport of Muay Thai and Kickboxing to evolve to what it is today and will always be remembered for his accomplishments in and out of the ring. Although there is much to say about how he lived, there are no final words to express our sorrow in his passing. No final words because individuals like Dekkers stay with us the rest of our lives, and to many of us, there is nothing final in his passing, only the passing of time. Our memories of Dekkers will last forever in a lot of us... However, his name and what he brought to this sport will last long after all of us are gone, for everyone here knows... Diamond last FOREVER...
In closing, Ramon's final Tweet on his Twitter page reminds us of who he truly was even after he stopped fighting in the ring. He was a true Ambassador for Muay Thai & Kickboxing who always saw the good in the sport and was excited about it's future. He proved this in his last "Twitter" comments which read,
"How exciting the future looks
for kickboxing...
Glory london Glory istanbul Glory milaan !!! Everything on
Eurosport!!!"
(4:26 AM - Feb 27, 2022)
twitter.com/diamonddekkers
Rest in
Peace Ramon...You are one of God's Champions now...
And Remember...
"Diamonds
Last FOREVER!"
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A Great Legend About 25 years ago, the time I was competing in Thai Boxing myself, I went with my buddy to an event because my bud had a fight. Before his fight he called me to the ring because there was a kid fighting a "grown up", the kid looked like he was 16 years old but he was 18 years old or so, skinny, blond with a mullet. My buddy said "Check this kid out". I said "He's gonna get killed" because the opponent was like 25, tattoos, long hair, scary looking and bigger (I believe a few weight classes up, that happened in Holland when an opponent wouldn't show up) My buddy said "Just keep watching", the big guy kept attacking and the skinny dude just moved, moments later WHACK!!!, the skinny kid gives the guy a low kick, the guy gets horizontal in the air and falls, I was like WTF? And that was the first time I saw Ramon just destroying his opponent, it wasn't even close. Ramon was one of these guys who NEVER complained when he would lose, which was almost never, and when he would lose a fight, that would, most of the time, mean that he took like three fights in a row in Thai Land, had a broken foot and/or hand and would fight with those injuries. But even when he would fight with a broken foot AND hand, and lost, he would never mention in interviews that he was injured. His coach Cor Hemmers told me a long time ago that he would never complain during the fight as well, he would come back to his corner and just say "My hand is broken" and that would be it. Not "What now? What should I do? Is there a "back up" game plan?" etc, none of that, he just state it was broken and that was it. One time he reset his shoulder in the minute break because he threw it out during the fight and then he simply continued fighting again. As many of you know he received the Thai Royalty Award on the Kings birthday, first foreigner ever to receive that. He was also the first foreigner EVER to receive the "Fighter of the year award" in Thailand, which before then always went to a fighter from Thailand. Really think about this, it's been there in Thailand for hundreds of years, the first Thai Army was created in 1238 and the hand to hand combat was "Thai Boxing" In two weeks Ramon was suppose to come visit me, we were going to shoot a big segment for his "life documentary", the segment would be called "Legend vs Legend", in where he and I would sit down and talk about the phenomenal career he has had. I had a great idea to start the documentary, have a person ask "Explain in one word or short sentence who Ramon Dekkers is?" and then ask that question to every top striker on the planet. Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Gokhan Saki, Zimmerman, Badr Hari, etc but also ask the top Mixed Martial Artists the same question because trust me, they know him. Have about 30 to 40 people giving their answers really fast, one after another, and that would be the opening for the Documentary I already heard that they are still going to do the documentary in honor of Ramon and for the Children's Foundation he had set up in Thailand This picture is from last September; he and his wife were visiting his brother Carlo, who is the head striking coach at my gym. We were at "Paradise Cove" in Malibu and had a great time. Talked about a TV show in Holland we all loved, "Jiskefet", one of the segments of the show was called "Debiteuren Crediteuren" and one of those was called "Stiften", we laughed so hard about this, I memorized whole segments from that TV show. Even when he went back to Holland we were exchanging Youtube clips from this particular show. Trust me, it's hilarious, every Dutch person will tell you this. Very down to earth person, super nice guy, anybody who has met him will tell you the same, we will miss him dearly. RIP Ramon | |
The above collection was
created by Robert Alexander Smal.
Ramon 'The Diamond' Dekkers fought them
all, in their homeland, under their rules... and he beat them!!!!!
He was
an eight time Muay Thai World Champion... with a record of winning 186 out of
221 fights, 95 by KO!!!!!
After representing Golden Glory as a fighter, he
worked as a coach passing on his fighting knowledge and expertise to the new
generation of fighters.
From
www.siang-equipments.com
From
Duane Ludwig
From
www.facebook.com/manumma
From
KRU Muay Thai of Sacramento, CA, USA
www.facebook.com/KRUMuayThaiSac
Albert Kraus: Here's a great picture from Ramon Dekkers
from 3 december 1993. This was before Ramon his fight with Charoenthong
Kiatbangchon on 4 december 2022
on King's Birthday in Bangkok. Thanks to
Luc Verheije for the picture. Osu Dirk Stal
Above & Below: March 7th,
2013.
BELOW: Flyover At Services.
Albert ''The Hurricane'' Kraus: Today
was a very sad day. It was the cremation of Ramon Dekkers.
He was a true
warrior, a fighter with a great fighting spirit. We will never forget him.
Thank
you, Ramon, for the great influence you brought to the sport of Thai and
kickboxing. We will missed you !! R.I.P Ramon. Farewell
Carl
Sams: THE fighter that shaped our generation. Put to rest this afternoon.
Never
to be forgotten. Goodnight my friend. See you on the other side!
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