ramon deckers was a legend in his own time deckers dominated opponents with his non-stop pressure and powerful combinations earning multiple championship titles in kickboxing and muay thai decker's achievements in muay thai were unheard of for a westerner at the time and greatly helped to popularize the style throughout the world with his powerful head and body hooks tilting head movement and relentless aggression deckers was like the mike tyson of kickboxing only tyson's opponents never had to worry about him following up his punches with roundhouse kicks like any good pressure fighter deckers excelled at closing the distance and the first way that he did this was through head movement in boxing dekker's head movement would have seemed understated but in kickboxing it was very noticeable in fact it was a big part of what allowed him to take out the top muay thai fighters of the era rather than hand fight deckers would slip past the long extended guard so often used by muay thai practitioners deckers was essentially treating frames and clinch attempts as if they were punches evading and then countering them [Music] moving his head offline not only bypassed his competitor's first line of defense it also loaded weight into his strikes and set up angles for deckers to punch through and around their guard for example in this clip decker slips his opponent's clinch attempt angling his lead hand perfectly to land an uppercut straight up the middle and here he does the same then sneaks a right over his shoulder it should always be remembered that head movement does not simply evade strikes it also creates new lines of attack that were not available before by repositioning a fighter's shoulders for example another favorite of decker's was to slip and step inside positioning himself to strike at his opponent's liver most opponents were woefully unprepared for the power the deckers could generate with his body shots once decker's landed one strike it was near impossible to stop him from landing another when decker's got an opponent against the ropes he would often transition into a wider stance from which he could better generate power from there dekker's had a strong base from which to shift his weight and put together seamless combinations like tyson he tended to alternate between body and head hooks he would mix in light taps with his power shots to make upon us overreact to the wrong threat then take advantage of the openings he's created decker's roundhouse kicks paired incredibly well with his boxing as his opponent so often tried to exit or pivot away from his hooks this moved them directly into the path of decker's kicks as they tried to escape [Music] of course head movement was too risky to use all the time by tilting his head offline deckers risked getting caught with kicks or knees deckers demonstrates this principle himself here catching his opponent as he tries to move his head offline that's why dekker's had a variety of ways to get in range many times knocking out his opponents as he did so deckers used teeps to help corner his opponents and fainted teeps to close distance and set up attacks of course the first step of fainting is always to establish the move as a viable threat in the first place this was no problem for deckers who had a powerful lightning-fast teep facilitated by the short narrow stance he preferred to use at long range in this clip dekker's uses a timing faint suddenly increasing his speed mid-strike to land and here deckers uses his teep to shift forward and establish a collar time leading to a ko it was instances like these that allowed decker to elicit reactions in his opponents by simply lifting his leg these face could also function as checks or steps to close distance and shift forward deckers also favored a double jab faint a classic in boxing of course decker's actual jab was again powerful enough to establish faints as a real threat however dekker's real go-to was to faint across throwing the cross naturally loads the fighter's lead hook with more power and when dekker's fainted across he still got that same boost in power decker's head movement and faints were highly effective but his real expertise was absorbing and deflecting shots off of his guard deckers allowed his opponents to unload on his guard as he moved into range taking little real damage himself to do this deckers employed three different kinds of guards the first was a high guard common in almost all forms of combat sports while a depressing number of fighters used a static high guard to take impact directly in hopes of landing their own shots deckers instead used a reactive height guard to absorb and deflect attacks for instance in this clip dekker's expertly repositions his cover blocks to pick off shots on his elbows in the same way a fighter can parry a punch aside with his hand decker's turn strikes away with the movement of his upper body he would also move into smother or turn with strikes in this clip dekker's tilt side to side to let the shots glance off of his arms when dekker's did take the impact directly on his guard the block was usually reinforced and used both arms this meant he could take hits directly while moving forward without taking too much damage this held true even against roundhouse kicks where deckers used both arms to block rather than use one arm to parry he often did the same for punches and elbows reinforcing one side with the other arm deckers also incorporated a traditional muay thai defense into his high guard placing one hand much higher than usual this allowed the denser part of his forearm to shield him from punches and elbows decker's also used a long guard notice how he smoothly turns aside each of his opponent's attacks in turn a slight oddity of deckers was his prevalence to favor his right arm for framing most those who employ a long guard mostly reach out with their lead hand but deckers often preferred to use his right hand regardless of if he was in an orthodox or southpaw stance just like when you fainted a cross this helped to load his left hook with more power more importantly it was another way of turning aside his opponent's lead armed leverage block to avoid the clinch in this clip dekker's uses his rear leverage block to knock aside his opponent's attempt to frame with his lead unbalancing him his opponent tries to frame again which deckard slips and then lands a beautiful knockdown believe it or not the last guard deckers used was a cross guard decker's occasionally used a full cross guard to shield him from flurries but more often than not he would use a single crossblock to shield his head decker's had a fairly advanced way of combining all three guards together he would turn his high cover block into a cross block to help dispel the force of the blow and then turn that into a cross frame to pull opponents into roundhouse kicks speaking of kicks you can't have a breakdown of decker's without mentioning his devastating roundhouse kicks mostly targeted at his opponent's legs decker's round kicks ended multiple fights rather than pivot on the ball of his foot to turn decker stepped into his kicks turning his foot before he landed although this step was highly telegraphic it also provided a number of benefits first it let him sink all of his weight down into his kick at the beginning of the movement allowing him to use all his effort to pull his hips through next by speeding up the development of his kick by combining the step and the pivot deckers could usually land first winning in a dual exchange of kicks notice here how decker's hip is able to turn as soon as he sets his foot down while his opponent has just begun his pivot while decker's base is steady his opponent is caught while up on his toes this pivot step also made it easier to move in deeper so that he could take out an opponent's support leg as they attempted to check as decker's kick was so highly telegraphed he tended to set it up with many of the techniques showcased before once decker's realized he could lay kick an opponent with impunity he simply would not stop [Music] decker's left a huge impact in martial arts inspiring countless fighters around the world i would recommend studying all of his fights that you can find especially if you want to be defensively responsible but still favor an aggressive pressure style thanks for watching you can check out my books on power footwork and defense down below from the modern martial artist this has been david christian wishing you happy training