Danielle Kelly gets boost of inspiration after Kade Ruotolo and Mikey Musumeci’s world title wins in ONE

Danielle Kelly is finally returning to the Circle following her celebrated ONE Championship debut at the promotion’s 10th-anniversary spectacular ONE X in March. On that night, Kelly delivered a dominant performance against Mei Yamaguchi.

Eight months later, Kelly will finally return to face highly touted sambo world champion Mariia Molchanova.

Speaking with The MMA Super Fan, Kelly discussed the success of other submission grappling stars inside the Circle recently, including Mikey Musumeci who became the first-ever submission grappling world champion at ONE on Prime Video 2. Less than a month later, ADCC world champion Kade Ruotolo became the promotion’s inaugural lightweight submission grappling titleholder.

Drawing inspiration from the performances of Musumeci and Ruotolo, Kelly believes a women’s submission grappling title would be huge for the sport and female BJJ practitioners around the world:

“When I saw Mikey winning the world title, at first it made me really motivated because I do wanna win the ONE championship world title for women’s grappling. It brings a lot of motivation and Kade and Mikey winning it was really good to see.”

While the promotion has yet to announce a women’s submission championship, Danielle Kelly could do her part to make that a reality with a big win over Mariia Molchanova on November 18th.

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Danielle Kelly talks about drawing inspiration from herself

As one of the biggest names in submission grappling, Danielle Kelly largely draws inspiration from herself, admitting in an interview with The MMA SuperFan that she is her own biggest fan. However, Kelly does admit that she has some heroes in the world of submission grappling, including grappling legend Roger Gracie:

“It’s kind of been a while since I looked up to anyone, just because I’ve had the mindset that I want to beat them. I’m kinda like, my own biggest fan. But honestly, I like Roger Gracie for being his age and everything. He competed against 'Buchecha', actually; speaking of that, who’s at ONE now.”

Kelly continued, saying:

"Like his last match was against 'Buchecha', and like' for taking such a long-time off of competing. He went out there and subbed 'Buchecha'. It was a gi match. I really like how Roger rolled."

Watch her last match below: