Best Foreigners in Muay Thai

[The MM Analyst]

I just did a podcast about my top 5 farangs in Muay Thai. My list is:

1. Dany Bill
2. Ramon Dekkers
3. Jean-Charles Skarbowsky
4. Farid Villaume
5. JWP

Who are your favorite farangs? Nadaka Yoshinari is one to keep an eye on at the moment. Recently vacated his raja/lumpini 105lb titles to move up a division. He's solid all around and very exciting, lots of finishes

 

[Cocakillbana]

1. Fujiwara
2. Bill
3. Dekkers
4. Umeno
5. Bohic

I think it's trivial though.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Dany Bill
Joel Cesar

Maybe not the best but my favourites.

 

[Kanka]

If the talent pool of foreign fighters is larger today than 30 years ago, shouldn't there be more good, and exceptional farangs today? All these rankings tend to have mostly old school fighters. Just a question, i'm not taking side here.

 

[Tayski]

If the talent pool of foreign fighters is larger today than 30 years ago, shouldn't there be more good, and exceptional farangs today? All these rankings tend to have mostly old school fighters. Just a question, i'm not taking side here.

People always tend to look back at someone's entire career to consider them one of the best. The currently active farangs probably wouldn't be recognised as one of the best until they complete their careers or at least are way past their prime, at which point people can estimate their entire career - and they probably would have accomplished even more by then. That's why most active fighters aren't put in those "greatest fighters" discussions, unless they've already been at the very top for a decade or something.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Unpopular opinion: even if a destruction machine and absolute killer, Dekkers was stiff, ugly to watch and predictable AF fuck and never fought muay thai. He did fight under stadium rules where he found a way to make his Dutch KB work.....
.....but the way he fought himself was never muay thai for even one second.

 

[lukeuidswords]

current best

 

[Gratis]

If the talent pool of foreign fighters is larger today than 30 years ago, shouldn't there be more good, and exceptional farangs today? All these rankings tend to have mostly old school fighters. Just a question, i'm not taking side here.

All the lists I see of the best Thai fighters also mainly consist of fighters from the 80s and 90s.

Unpopular opinion: even if a destruction machine and absolute killer, Dekkers was stiff, ugly to watch and predictable AF fuck and never fought muay thai. He did fight under stadium rules where he found a way to make his Dutch KB work.....
.....but the way he fought himself was never muay thai for even one second.

I don't see why this matters. Muay Thai isn't a martial art*, it's a sport. He fought under FTR, in the stadiums no less, that makes him a MT fighter. I don't think his style should make him be considered any less of one than your typical Muay Mat.

Edit - I mean that it's not strictly a martial art in the sense that Kickboxing and Boxing aren't 'martial arts' unto themselves, not that it isn't comprised of its own techniques etc.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

All the lists I see of the best Thai fighters also mainly consist of fighters from the 80s and 90s.



I don't see why this matters. Muay Thai isn't a martial art*, it's a sport. He fought under FTR, in the stadiums no less, that makes him a MT fighter. I don't think his style should make him be considered any less of one than your typical Muay Mat.

Edit - I mean that it's not strictly a martial art in the sense that Kickboxing and Boxing aren't 'martial arts' unto themselves, not that it isn't comprised of its own techniques etc.

Ok well I disagree. His accomplishments in stadiums are what they are and I am not trying to diminish that but no, he never fought like a MT fighter, no matter the sub-style / Matt / Bouk etc.

 

[SandisLL]

Unpopular opinion: even if a destruction machine and absolute killer, Dekkers was stiff, ugly to watch and predictable AF fuck and never fought muay thai. He did fight under stadium rules where he found a way to make his Dutch KB work.....
.....but the way he fought himself was never muay thai for even one second.

What from this?
& Europe does looks doesn't needs too much their own KB, not to talk about MT pro watching.
1. It is really till vomit this bragging : please let europeans alone and in no case bother about euro market with this attention.

We do have MMA and boxing and in no case I will listen shitting there.
Attention= time = $.
Go to asian auditory and continue this trolling.

Europe barely needs remaining from KB to see, not alone talk about pro MT.
So forum is right truth place to shit on europeans.


SHIT HOLE IS THIS FORUM.

 

[Gratis]

Ok well I disagree. His accomplishments in stadiums are what they are and I am not trying to diminish that but no, he never fought like a MT fighter, no matter the sub-style / Matt / Bouk etc.

What makes his style so different from a Muay Mat? Your opinion that he was "ugly to watch" doesn't invalidate his status as a Muay Thai fighter if he fought in Muay Thai, which is ultimately what defines whether someone is a MT fighter or not, not personal preferences for style. He's not the only nak muay I've seen fight like that either.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

What from this?
& Europe does looks doesn't needs too much their own KB, not to talk about MT pro watching.
1. It is really till vomit this bragging : please let europeans alone and in no case bother about euro market with this attention.

We do have MMA and boxing and in no case I will listen shitting there.
Attention= time = $.
Go to asian auditory and continue this trolling.

Europe barely needs remaining from KB to see, not alone talk about pro MT.
So forum is right truth place to shit on europeans.


SHIT HOLE IS THIS FORUM.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

What makes his style so different from a Muay Mat? Your opinion that he was "ugly to watch" doesn't invalidate his status as a Muay Thai fighter if he fought in Muay Thai, which is ultimately what defines whether someone is a MT fighter or not, not personal preferences for style. He's not the only nak muay I've seen fight like that either.

But he s not a Nak Muay, dude. I mean a fighter fightingunder MT rules does not make one a MT fighter.

OK forget the ugly comment because that is purely subjective but no he does not fight like other Muay Mats. Wangchanoi, Veeraphol, Lakhin for example fight nothing like Dekkers. It is not about what you employ but the whole rythm of fighting, the distance management, everything. No Thai fights like Dekkers. Muay Thai is more than just a ruleset, you know.

BTW it makes it even more impressive in a way, that he was able to prevail so often against Thais under their rule but by using a very limited / specialised weapon set. Dany Bill for example IS a MT fighter. He also came from Europe BUT adopted a slick femeur style at jocky gym. He said it himself that he wanted to learn this style from the best at this style. At the same time isn't it notorious that Dekkers was convinced about his Dutch style and DGAF about expanding his knowledge?

So yes absolutely, because of all the above. Dekkers was never a MT fighter. He was a Dutch style kickboxer who prevailed in a ruleset that wasn't his.

 

[SandisLL]

Post next meme and enjoy.
More memes smart................er.

 

[SandisLL]

ekkers was never a MT fighter

Business cares about wievership = more = better.

Dekkers was never a MT fighter. He was a Dutch style kickboxer who prevailed in a ruleset that wasn't his.

 

[Kanka]

All the lists I see of the best Thai fighters also mainly consist of fighters from the 80s and 90s

Yeah but the thai talent pool might have been bigger back then. That's what i've heard but i don't know. It seems to me that the farang talent pool is much larger now, a lot of fighters moved to thailand and train there full-time.

 

[Gratis]

Yeah but the thai talent pool might have been bigger back then. That's what i've heard but i don't know. It seems to me that the farang talent pool is much larger now, a lot of fighters moved to thailand and train there full-time.

Well that was kind of my point, that foreign fighters who fought in or around the 'Golden Age' would be held in higher regard. Even if there's probably a greater number of elite farang nowadays, I still don't think I've seen one as good as Dany Bill, for example.

But he s not a Nak Muay, dude. I mean a fighter fightingunder MT rules does not make one a MT fighter.

OK forget the ugly comment because that is purely subjective but no he does not fight like other Muay Mats. Wangchanoi, Veeraphol, Lakhin for example fight nothing like Dekkers. It is not about what you employ but the whole rythm of fighting, the distance management, everything. No Thai fights like Dekkers. Muay Thai is more than just a ruleset, you know.

BTW it makes it even more impressive in a way, that he was able to prevail so often against Thais under their rule but by using a very limited / specialised weapon set. Dany Bill for example IS a MT fighter. He also came from Europe BUT adopted a slick femeur style at jocky gym. He said it himself that he wanted to learn this style from the best at this style. At the same time isn't it notorious that Dekkers was convinced about his Dutch style and DGAF about expanding his knowledge?

So yes absolutely, because of all the above. Dekkers was never a MT fighter. He was a Dutch style kickboxer who prevailed in a ruleset that wasn't his.

I referred to him as a Nak Muay because I saw other Thais refer to him as such. Unless I'm ignorant regarding that term and it means something beyond just a MT fighter. Even when people are critical of the myth surrounding how Dekkers "changed" Muay Thai, I've never heard seen anyone claim that he wasn't actually a MT fighter because of the way he fought. I'm not as well-versed on the nuances, but when I watch his fights against Coban, especially the latter ones, I don't see something that is completely different from Muay Thai.

Even if he was a just a 'Dutch-style' Kickboxer who simply fought under Thai rules, that doesn't disqualify him from being one of the best foreign fighters in Muay Thai. Because the point is we evaluate that based on what he did in Muay Thai.

 

[Kanka]

On youtube, instagram etc even saying Dekkers isn't the GOAT of Muay Thai is unpopular <45>

But did "dutch kickboxing" even exist when Dekkers started fighting? I thought they called it "Thaiboxen" or something back then?

 

[The MM Analyst]

If the talent pool of foreign fighters is larger today than 30 years ago, shouldn't there be more good, and exceptional farangs today? All these rankings tend to have mostly old school fighters. Just a question, i'm not taking side here.

The talent pool of Thais is quite a bit smaller nowadays than it was 20 years ago though, and Muay Thai fighters are evaluated more on how they do against Thais (since the elite of the sport are almost all Thai'), so it's harder to amass an impressive record today. Rafi is a solid fighter and has quite a few good wins, but beating guys like Chamuaktong and Yodpanomrung isn't near as impressive as something like knocking out a prime Cherry/Coban or beating Den in 93. I'm also not sure there's too many more farangs winning meaningful titles nowadays than there was back then - IIRC Rafi and Nadaka are the only non-thai's who hold major stadium titles right now, and Rafi's is in a poor division.

 

[Finding Deebo]

From what I've learned in this forum is that the answer is simply "Romanians"....