Danielle Kelly has just had her third professional grappling match in the ONE Championship cage booked, and she will be facing off against Judo black belt Ayaka Miura at ONE on Prime Video 7 on February 10th. Kelly has faced a wide range of opponents in her first few matches for ONE Championship after she became one of the first grapplers that signed a contract with the combat sports promotion. She made her promotional debut all the way back at ONE X where she fought against MMA legend Mei Yamaguchi and despite putting in a great performance, was unable to finish her and had to settle for a draw.
She returned then at ONE on Prime Video 4 to take on Russian Sambo world champion Mariia Molchanova, serving as part of the ongoing rivalry between BJJ and Sambo in the ONE Championship cage. Although this was slated to be a tough test for Kelly, she passed with flying colours. She was relentless in attacking the back and although Molchanova put up a valiant effort, she was ultimately unable to stop Kelly from submitting her with a rear-naked choke. Now Danielle Kelly will face another new stylistic challenge, as she faces Ayaka Miura in a catchweight bout at ONE on Prime Video 7.
Miura is a Japanese Judo black belt who has used her skills extensively in her MMA career, racking up an 11-5 (1) professional record to date. She has used a brutal scarfhold to great effect several times and submitted most of her opponents from that position. It stands to reason that Miura will almost certainly have a distinct advantage in standing grappling and if she finds herself past Kelly’s guard, it will likely be a very long night for the Silver Fox black belt. Under the ruleset there is no penalty for pulling guard, so it’s likely that Kelly does exactly that and attempts to beat Miura off her back with her high-level guard-game.
The news that Danielle Kelly had been matched against Judo black belt Ayaka Miura at ONE on Prime Video 7 was announced in a post to the official Instagram account of ONE Championship:
