Danielle Kelly stresses the importance of training your strong and weak sides in jiu-jitsu: “I prefer to be good everywhere”

At ONE Fight Night 14, Danielle Kelly secured the biggest win of her career on a night with huge stakes riding over it.

On September 29 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the 27-year old joined the likes of Kade Ruotolo and Mikey Musumeci as a submission grappling world champion under the ONE banner.

Facing off against Jessa Khan for the inaugural atomweight submission grappling world championship, Kelly didn’t just have the title hanging over her but also her defeat to Khan from two years prior that she looked to correct now they're both on the ONE Championship roster.

Looking to prove that she had evolved as a grappler and deserved to be recognized as an elite competitor, she did just that on fight night with a controlling performance that saw her get her hand raised at the end of the time limit.

In a recent appearance on the Chewjitsu Podcast, Danielle Kelly spoke about what she has been able to learn from her years spent improving and constantly tweaking her own skillset.

On the subject of whether grapplers should focus on playing to their strengths, the Silver Fox BJJ student spoke about her own outlook and what personally works best for her in preparations:

“I was told like, if you have a strong side, you just keep working on your strong side. But like, I've always kind of, you know, I always wanted to work on my bad side for like, for a good like, just for a good reason, and I think like, you know, sometimes when I'm training with people, competing, just sparring, whatever, I know it’s like, they’re good out on one side and I could do certain things on the side that they’re not good at.”

Kelly went on to reveal what advice she passes down to others based on her experiences of evolving as a competitor at the highest level:

“So, you know, I'm kind of thankful, I'm just working on both sides, so I think when people ask me, like, ‘Oh should I just stay on my good side?’ I will usually tell the person that you should work on both sides. But, you know, if you're comfortable doing on your good side then some people are good at that, but I just prefer to be good everywhere.”

Watch the full podcast interview below:

The replay of ONE Fight Night 14 is available anytime on demand for Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America