Watch: Danielle Kelly shows off mat skills against grappling dummy

American grappling ace Danielle Kelly recently showed off her transition skills on Instagram as she practiced with a dummy.

ONE Championship shared a clip of the 26-year-old Brazilian Jiu Jitsu athlete:

"No partner? No problem."

In the clip, Kelly is seen rolling with a grappling dummy. She starts on her back in butterfly guard. She then lifts her opponent, locks her leg through theirs, then pulls the leg and rolls through, getting into the top position.

The young Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Blackbelt holder is an expert in submission grappling. She has competed in events such as EBI, WNO, and ADCC trials. Most recently, she grappled to a draw against MMA veteran Mei Yamaguchi.

Yamaguchi has had a submission grappling career going back 15 years. Kelly was able to attempt numerous submissions against her experienced opponent. However, her impressive game earned her a $50,000 performance bonus.

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Danielle Kelly discusses Mei Yamaguchi

The young US-born grappler was flattered but quite surprised to earn such a performance bonus at ONE X. In her exclusive post-fight interview with Sportskeeda MMA, she excitedly said:

"I'm doing jiu-jitsu for now so I was not expecting that! Usually that's expected in MMA for an amazing performance. No, I was not expecting that. I was just expecting to come here and do my thing and have fun with it."

Kelly said that she expected Yamaguchi to grapple quite defensively and was disappointed in herself for being unable to overcome these obstacles. In an interview with South China Morning Post MMA, Kelly explained:

“I wouldn’t say surprised, I feel like kind of disappointed myself because I knew she was going to play that kind of game. I thought she would be more engaging with me because from her past fights, she was always going forward to the girls, taking them down trying to submit them."

She added:

"I felt like for this one, she was just trying to survive. And you know, that’s good defense on her. It was a 12-minute match.”

The young Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt has been posting many grappling techniques on her Instagram. Danielle Kelly is in the gym working hard, potentially looking to have another submission grappling bout later this year. Nothing is yet officially announced about her return though.

"“You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them." The grappler fighter pose😄 thanks [ONE Championship] for the photos."