Danielle Kelly is doing her part in bringing jiu-jitsu to the mainstream like MMA

Danielle Kelly hopes to see a day where Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners can make a living in the sport as many mixed martial artists do.

Since debuting for ONE Championship in early 2022, Kelly has seen her star rise significantly. Spending much of her year traveling the United States hosting instructionals, Kelly scored the most impressive win of her career thus far, submitting sambo world champion Mariia Molchanova at ONE on Prime Video 4 in November.

Danielle Kelly followed up that victory with an impressive win over judo black belt Ayaka Miura at ONE Fight Night 7. Following her incredibly entertaining scrap at the legendary Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, Kelly addressed the media in a post-fight interview. She expressed her desire to grow the sport of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and hopes to see it reach the same level of popularity as MMA:

"I think if I just keep performing my best and growing in the sport and the sport becomes as popular as MMA, I think a lot of the athletes can be well off just competing in jiu-jitsu."

One way Danielle Kelly hopes to help grow the sport is by making history as ONE Championship’s first female submission grappling world champion. ONE is yet to announce a title for women’s submission grappling, but with Kelly’s popularity growing with each performance, it seems to be just a matter of time before she gets the opportunity to compete for 26 pounds of gold.

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Danielle Kelly’s focus will remain on jiu-jitsu for now

Danielle Kelly looked to be close to making an intriguing transition to the world of MMA. A heated rivalry with reigning atomweight queen Angela Lee added fuel to the speculation. But according to the submission superstar, she will continue to hone her craft in her chosen discipline, putting off a previously teased transition:

“I've been just focusing on jiu-jitsu. I'm not pressured to do MMA right now. I think I want to accomplish something in jiu-jitsu first, put my name out there, and then I'll talk to my team and coaches whenever I want to fight, but right now, it's just jiu-jitsu.”

Fortunately, Kelly hasn’t completely ruled out a move to MMA in the future. As an atomweight, a plethora of main event-worthy matchups await Kelly in one of the most stacked divisions in ONE Championship. Potential fights against atomweight standouts including Stamp Fairtex, Ham Seo Hee, Itsuki Hirata, Denice Zamboanga, Tiffany Teo, and Ritu Phogat would be enough to make any MMA fan salivate.

Catch highlights of Kelly's match with Miura below: