Danielle Kelly reminisces about her first BJJ class at 10 years old: “I never heard of jiu-jitsu”

Every heroine has her own origin story, and Danielle Kelly’s remarkable Brazilian jiu-jitsu journey is indeed as inspiring as it gets.

Before becoming the inaugural ONE atomweight submission grappling world champion that we now know and love, Kelly simply wanted to learn how to defend herself against bullies.

Back when she was just 10 years old, the American star was just settling in at her new neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

While her parents wanted to enroll her in martial arts classes, nobody in her family knew what ‘The Gentle Art’ was at the time.

Danielle Kelly shared in an appearance on the Chewjitsu Podcast:

“It's a very long story, so I'll just keep it really short. When I started like I was a new kid at school and I was getting bullied a lot, and at the time, like where we moved, I thought it was a karate school at first because that's how I started. My dad looked up a place, and just a week before, I saw like some girl fights that were like popular in Strikeforce. And I was like ‘Oh, I kind of want to do that stuff’ like it may also help me like not get beat up in school."

The Silver Fox BJJ standout added:

“So he looked up school self-defense and found this school. My mom took me too and I never heard of jiu-jitsu, so my coach explained to my mom. She thought like he was crazy, like what's jiu-jitsu? So the next day I did the kids class. I started when I was 10, so I didn't have a Gi. So I was wearing a top and then sweatpants as bottoms.”

Watch the full podcast episode below:

Danielle Kelly has truly come a long way from being that clueless kid who thought she was going to do karate. The 27-year-old superstar is arguably one of the best female grapplers in the world today, which she proved by outclassing Jessa Khan to claim 26 pounds of gold at ONE Fight Night 14 last September.

Who would you like to see Danielle Kelly defend her crown against next?