Younes Rabah has hit out at his exclusion from the ONE Championship featherweight Muay Thai rankings after recently making a winning debut in the division.
“The Eagle” knocked Eddie Abasolo down twice en route to an impressive unanimous decision win at ONE 169 earlier this month in Bangkok.
The 27-year-old Algerian was left out of the latest update to the top five of his division, however, with American Luke Lessei keeping hold of his No 5 spot – much to Rabah’s incredulity.
“I feel I deserve to be in the top five, because I have already beaten two big names,” Rabah told the Bangkok Post.
“Saemapatch Fairtex was ranked No 3 in bantamweight and I beat him, and I beat Eddie by unanimous decision – and both with big performances.
“I don’t think Luke deserves to still be there at all. He has two losses and one loss with a big knockout to Bampara Kouyate. The only win he has was against Eddie by split decision and he found himself in the rankings.
“And the weird thing is that Kouyate has one win and one loss and he’s No 4. So I see that I deserve to be in the rankings more than these two guys.”
Rabah, who trains at Pattaya’s Venum Training Camp under coach Mehdi Zatout, has big plans after making the switch from bantamweight, where he previously struggled to make weight.
“I want Sitthichai [Sitsongpeenong] in February because he’s No 3, and he’s a legend, so I would love to challenge myself against these big names,” Rabah added.
“With or without the rankings, ‘The Eagle’ has landed. I’m going to show all these guys in this division the Algerian power. I’m here to take over.”
