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ONE submission grappling rising star Danielle Kelly will make her second appearance inside the circle against highly touted Russian sambo world champion Mariia Molchanova.
The high-stakes women’s atomweight encounter between the pair of submission grappling stars will take place on the lead card of ONE on Prime Video 4: Abbasov vs Lee. The event is set for November 18 inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Danielle Kelly first endeared herself to ONE fans back at ONE X this past March. She dominated Japanese star Mei Yamaguchi in 10 minutes of a purely technical grappling war.
While the bout ended in a draw since neither fighter got the submission, the 26-year-old American had the clear advantage throughout the match. She even received a cool $50,000 bonus for her stunning debut.
Now, the Silver Fox BJJ standout is already promising a swift submission finish in her sophomore showing against Molchanova. Danielle Kelly wrote on Instagram:
“Finally can announce my next match will be against a decorated sambo opponent November 18th on @amazonprime @onechampionship . If you guys want to see good jiu jitsu and a quick submission make sure you watch this match😇🤷🏻♀️.”
While not much is known about her opponent Molchanova, she does come from a Sambo background. The discipline has become prevalent in mixed martial arts as of late. This matchup between the two grappling arts adds another entry to ONE’s growing Brazilian jiu-jitsu versus sambo warfare.
BJJ has had the upper hand as of late, with Kade Ruotolo heel-hooking Uali Kurzhev at ONE on Prime Video 3 last month. Rodrigo Marello also used a similar straight ankle lock to tap out Ruslan Bagdasarian at ONE 161 in September.
Kelly would no doubt love to continue the trend and bring home another win for the BJJ community.
Danielle Kelly says BJJ is superior to sambo
ONE recently crowned its first two world champions in the grappling arts, as Mikey Musumeci and Kade Ruotolo became the inaugural submission grappling world titleholders of the flyweight and lightweight divisions, respectively.
Danielle Kelly, meanwhile, knows a decisive win against Molchanova puts her in a position to become ONE’s first female all-grappling world champion. Furthermore, the BJJ ace cited Ruotolo’s recent win against Kurzhev as the perfect example of why BJJ trumps over sambo any time of the day.
She said in an interview with The MMA Super-Fan:
“Yes, I’m a jiu-jitsu person so I’ll say that BJJ is more superior than sambo. But like, if you kinda watch the Kade and Kurzhev match. Kurzhev didn’t do a bad job, he got out like a really tight submission at first, so you have to respect the sport of sambo when you’re a jiu-jitsu person.”
Danielle Kelly further explained:
“He [Kurzhev] didn’t give up easily. He was trying to attack Kade, he took down Kade with a foot sweep really fast. I think there’s a certain respect to it but I think at the end of the day, I think jiu-jitsu people are more dominant, especially on the ground against sambo people.”
Watch the interview below:
