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ONE fans are eager to see Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Danielle Kelly back in the ONE circle, following her spectacular debut against Mae Yamaguchi at ONE X last March.
The 26-year-old submission grappling ace is one of the hottest tickets in the promotion right now, with plenty of interesting matchups to explore. In a recent interview with ONE Championship, Danielle Kelly revealed the thoughts going through her mind as she awaits her next opponent.
The Silver Fox BJJ standout shared how she’s keeping herself ready for the bigger challenges ahead. She told ONE Championship:
"Recently, yeah, all the time now. Because right now, I'm in a big organization. My name is kind of growing. It's growing a lot. So you know, I need to challenge myself right now. I need to get beat up more in the gym. And so whoever I go against will be easy. So I get the win the title.”
ONE has put submission grappling back into the spotlight by signing established BJJ stars like Danielle Kelly, Mikey Musumeci, and the Ruotolo brothers, Tye and Kade, among others.
The largest martial arts organization in the world will also be crowning the inaugural ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion at ONE on Prime Video 2, as Mikey Musumeci and Cleber Sousa will duke it out. Kelly seems to be heading down a similar path for gold if she puts on more incredible performances, as she did against Yamaguchi.
While the match ended in a stalemate since neither fighter got the submission after 12 minutes, it was clear that Danielle Kelly dominated throughout. She clearly outclassed Yamaguchi, who’s also a BJJ black belt herself, and even won a $50,000 bonus for her efforts.
Re-watch Kelly’s ONE debut below:
Who’s next for Danielle Kelly?
Kelly signed with ONE earlier this year with the intent of competing in submission grappling and eventually transitioning into mixed martial arts.
The BJJ specialist hasn’t even fought in MMA yet but already has an ongoing beef with arguably one of the best female fighters in the world, reigning ONE women’s atomweight world champion Angela Lee.
Kelly caught the ire of ‘Unstoppable’ when she insinuated that the Singaporean-American star is not a “legit grappler” during a press conference back in July. Lee has fired back, claiming that she’ll entertain a grappling match with Kelly, but is focusing on bigger fights at the moment.
Considering they are traversing different paths, a Lee vs. Kelly match is highly unlikely.
Plus, Kelly has already stated her preference to fight ONE newcomer and 2022 Pan IBJFF world champion, Jessa Khan. That fight makes sense, since Kelly has unfinished business with Khan after losing to her via decision in a grappling match last year.
Kelly told SCMP MMA:
“For sure, she's a legit grappler. That's someone I need to focus on, and I want to get at her again. So, yeah, I mean, again, if they offered me that match, I'm all for it.”
