Danielle Kelly blasts Mayssa Bastos for being too timid in first fight: "No intention of attacking but pulls"

Danielle Kelly believes that she was hard done by in her last outing under the ONE Championship banner.

The 29-year-old is no stranger to opponents being defensive against her, and this has frustrated Kelly during her time in the promotion.

However, ONE's submission grappling ruleset prioritizes action and offense, helping her play to her strengths.

At ONE Fight Night 24 in August, she suffered her one and only loss in the promotion when Mayssa Bastos beat her via a decision to claim the ONE atomweight submission grappling world championship.

Kelly believes that her opponent should have been penalized for not looking to progress or finish the contest at points.

Ahead of their rematch at ONE Fight Night 26 on December 6, the former champion voiced her complaints in a recent interview with ONE Championship:

"It's just more like, she had a warning the first time, then she pulls guard in the second time with no intention of attacking but pulls, but didn't get called for it for some reason, but her teammate did. So I feel like, even viewers, not just me, in general, on both sides, feel like the rules should be the rules."

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Danielle Kelly will look to push Mayssa Bastos even further

The high output, aggression, and wrestling ability of Danielle Kelly usually make for a strong counter to opponents who choose to be more defensive and strategic.

She's often able to counter this by putting the pace on them and forcing them to work and she was able to do this against Mayssa Bastos but not enough to completely control the fight.

The former champ thinks that the Brazilian got away with this the first time around, but Kelly won't let that be the case on her return to Lumpinee Stadium, where she hopes to leave Bangkok with the atomweight gold once again.