“I can't scrub her off too fast” - Danielle Kelly expects Ayaka Miura to be hard to submit

Danielle Kelly isn’t taking her next opponent lightly, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t see a sharp correlation between a previous foe.

Kelly will fight Japan’s Ayaka Miura later this month at ONE Fight Night 7 in Bangkok. The bout will mark her third with ONE Championship after drawing with Mei Yamaguchi and then submitting Mariia Molchanova last year.

Kelly expects Miura to be resilient and at times play to her strengths in their upcoming showdown, but she also knows that she’ll be familiar with the looks that she’s going to get.

Speaking with the South China Morning Post, Danielle Kelly gave her thoughts on what to expect from Ayaka Miura:

“I think if Ayaka wants to play Mei’s game, I think I've also [made] adjustments from the first match. But I think just for a little bit, if I'm in a bad position, I think she'll be tough to, I can't scrub her off too fast or get her off me. But yeah, I think it'll be pretty similar. I know they're working with the same person. [Masakazu] Imanari, I think his name is. I think just getting that experience was a pretty good warm-up for me.”

Miura comes from a judo background and has already fought seven times for ONE Championship in MMA. Among her deadliest weapons are the scarf hold armlock and the Americana - six of her eleven MMA wins came by one of those two finishes alone.

Danielle Kelly seems to be fully aware of the danger she could run into against Miura and is not fazed by the success her opponent has had making women tap.

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Danielle Kelly already plotting two future showdowns in ONE Championship

While her focus is on Ayaka Miura this month, Danielle Kelly enjoys musing the possibilities of big matches available to her in ONE Championship.

Speaking to media outlet The MMA Superfan, Kelly names a current MMA world champion she’s intent to face:

“I have called out two people. I think for one, because she’s a big name, Angela Lee. I think that match was supposed to be in the works for a while and I think just to bring women’s jiu-jitsu forward, I think that will bring way more eyes.”

In addition, Danielle Kelly is craving a taste of revenge against an old foe:

“I also called out Jessa Khan. I know she’s signed to ONE, but I’ve seen her in a few tournaments. I called her out, so I don’t know what’s going on. I would like to have that match, I think I could beat her.”

With a win over Ayaka Miura on February 24, Danielle Kelly will have a strong case for a potential world title fight. Both of these names would be monumental tests for the American grappler and drive women’s grappling forward.