Danielle Kelly recently gave her thoughts on beating Jessa Khan at ONE Fight Night on September 29th, 2023, where she cemented her place in ONE Championship history. Kelly not only became the inaugural atomweight submission grappling world champion by beating Khan, but she also became the very first female champion in any weight class. It wasn’t just the opportunity to become a world champion that made it a big moment for Kelly either, it was also a chance to get some personal revenge against someone who had beaten her before.
When Kelly spoke in the post-fight interview, she talked about how it felt to get the win:
“I envisioned this, and I put it out there today. I didn’t let the noise get to me. This is what I do. This is my job and I proved that I was the best today. I proved I was better than Jessa Khan.”
She went on to explain what it meant specifically to be a champion and she’s clearly aware of the fact that she’s taken a much bigger place at the forefront of submission grappling now:
“This means that I’m a warrior. Again, I worked really hard for this and I’m a champion and I’m just proud to be the face of ONE Championship’s Atomweight Submission Grappling and be the face of women’s Jiu-Jitsu for all the young girls and boys out there. That’s what motivates me.”
Although Danielle Kelly beat Jessa Khan pretty convincingly under the ONE Championship ruleset, the score between these two women now sits at 1-1. Naturally the conversation turned towards the possibility of a trilogy match between them, and Kelly gave her thoughts on the idea:
“I wouldn’t be opposed to it, but you know I beat her pretty good today. She had a back exchange at one point, but I escaped it, and I almost choked her out in the last ten seconds.”
The full post-fight interview with Danielle Kelly where she discusses her win over Jessa Khan at ONE Fight Night 14 was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Fight Book MMA:
