Danielle Kelly submitted Mariia Molchanova at ONE on Prime Video 4 this morning. The BJJ black belt controlled the action from start to finish after pulling guard and taking the Russian’s back.
She transitioned from a face crank to a rear naked choke and the Russian was eventually forced to tap. It was Kelly’s second straight ONE Championship win and leaves her in pole position for shot at the atomweight submission grappling belt when it is introduced.
Afterwards Kelly was informed she would be getting a $50,000 USD performance bonus. It is the second time she has received this award from ONE Championship and this time the 26 year old did not leave it in the hands of the judges:
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Different sports
But while Kelly looks like the #1 contender for the belt she had another opponent on her mind after the fight. She wants to take on fellow BJJ black belt Angela Lee.
Both atomweights might hold black belts in BJJ but the similarities end there. Lee is a mixed martial artist who appears to have only ever competed once or twice in submission grappling.
By contrast Kelly has never competed in MMA. But she is a veteran of submission grappling bouts and competed seven times last year, taking on some elite level grapplers and mixed martial artists.
After the fight Kelly called out Lee:
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Rival atomweights
The two both compete in the same division, although Lee’s most recent fight was at strawweight. They both shared the stage at a press conference organized by ONE Championship and Amazon Prime in July.
Kelly was asked about the prospect of facing Lee during that press conference and responded that she was only interested in taking on ‘legit grapplers’. This jibe didn’t appear to go down particularly well with the Hawaiian who challenged her rival to an MMA fight.
Lee has an atomweight title to defend and Seo Hee Ham is waiting to challenge her for it, even if the Korean did pull out of this morning’s fight with Itsuki Hirata. So it is unlikely she would decided to make a foray into the world of submission grappling in order to take on Kelly.
Meanwhile Kelly doesn’t appear to have any experience of MMA and has been very successful in her submission grappling career. So it is unlikely that these two will get to settle their differences in the circle any time soon but there is clearly a rivalry brewing.
