Submission grappling star Danielle Kelly is drawing motivation from big things happening at ONE Championship.
On Friday, in front of a massive North American primetime audience, Mikey Musumeci and Cleber Sousa will battle for the inaugural ONE flyweight submission grappling world championship at ONE on Prime Video 2.
Kelly made her promotional debut this past March when she took on Japanese MMA legend Mei Yamaguchi, and while that match ended in a draw because no submission was achieved, the American largely dominated Yamaguchi throughout, announcing herself as a key player in ONE’s ever-expanding submission grappling division.
And now that Musumeci and Sousa are set for a world title contest, Kelly can see herself in a similar position. Though she doesn’t yet have her next bout scheduled, she’s inspired by the possibility of capturing ONE Championship gold.
“It excites me a lot, and it brings me a lot of motivation,” she explained. “You know, I don’t really have anything right now. I haven’t heard anything on my end. But you know, it’s keeping me pretty motivated to train hard for whoever I’m going to compete against for the title.”
The American standout recognizes that ONE Championship and its massive platform have been a major boon to the sport of grappling.
As the world’s largest martial arts organization, ONE Championship is uniquely positioned to not only host the world’s best grapplers, but also advance Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submission grappling as spectator sports.
“I think it’s really good for the sport,” Kelly continued. “Again, I think it’s going to be the biggest (thing) for jiu-jitsu. Having him against Sousa, and having them fight, is going to bring a lot of eyes to it because even Mikey’s last submission against Imanari, it brought a lot of eyes to the sport.”
Indeed, Musumeci’s quick submission win over Masakazu Imanari at ONE 156 this past April was one of the most-watched submission grappling matches ever.
Knowing that her next contest could be for a world title, the Philadelphia-bred Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt is staying ready at all times.
To that end, she’s dialed back some training to ensure she remains healthy, and she is mentally preparing for any possible opponent.
“Ever since I’ve been (signed) under ONE right now, I’ve been changing a lot of my training habits and you know, I want to stay injury free, and I’m kind of weird – whoever was potentially signed, whoever’s signed right now, and, potentially, who I’ll go against, I’ve been having, like, mental bouts with myself,” she said.
“Like, ‘Alright, I might go against this girl, so I’m going to stay ready because she likes to do this stuff.’ So, if I get the call, ‘Hey, you’re going against so and so for the grappling title,’ I’m going to be ready.”
It’s safe to assume that Kelly will be tuning in on Friday to catch the first-ever ONE submission grappling world title match at ONE on Prime Video 2 and envisioning herself in exactly that spot in the near future.
