“I had a rude awakening” – Danielle Kelly says ‘frustrating’ win over Ayaka Miura forced her to take a different approach in jiu-jitsu

Danielle Kelly believes her match against Ayaka Miura served as a wake-up call as she continued to find her feet in submission grappling contests inside the ONE Circle.

Though the switch of ruleset, which favors Kelly’s submission-hunting game and penalizes opponents for stalling, was something that didn’t need any settling in, the natural limitations of the Circle were leaving her a bit unsettled after her first two contests.

Despite putting out a stellar performance over Mei Yamaguchi at ONE X and beating Mariia Molchanova at ONE on Prime Video 4, the Silver Fox BJJ affiliate’s test against Miura presented her with a totally different setting.

With the ONE ring favored inside the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, the 27-year-old assumed it would be no different than her past two battles under the ONE banner.

Reflection on her match against the Japanese veteran, Danielle Kelly told Brendan Schaub on his podcast, Thiccc Boy:

“She really knew how to use the rules and like the ring against me, so it's frustrating, yeah. I had a rude awakening at one point, but then I ended up beating her, so yeah.”

She added:

“But that made me really focus on improving my jiu-jitsu in other scenarios, like the ring or the Circle, specifically.”

Watch the full interview here:

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Relive Danielle Kelly’s grappling clinic versus Ayaka Miura

Knowing about her rival’s trademark scarf-hold American – the Ayaka Lock – Danielle Kelly patiently carved an opening while defending deep submission attempts from the get-go.

However, as the match progressed, the Silver Fox BJJ athlete’s eye to stay away from danger allowed her to counter and take Miura’s back on multiple occasions.

Although she had to ride through a wave of storm in the opening minutes of the contest, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt eventually settled in and got across the finish line with flying colors.

Since then, the Philadelphia native took out Jessa Khan to claim the inaugural ONE atomweight submission grappling world title when they ran it back in the co-main event of ONE Fight Night 14 on September 29.

North American fans with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription can relive her dominant win over Khan via replay for free.