Danielle Kelly defends referee’s call to award her a catch vs. Jessa Khan: “It was a legitimate submission attempt”

Newly minted ONE atomweight submission grappling world champion Danielle Kelly had no qualms about answering those who questioned the legitimacy of her ONE Fight Night 14 win against Jessa Khan.

For one, some pundits cast doubt on the referee’s decision to award a ‘catch’, or an acknowledgment from the official that a submission attempt was fully locked in.

Under ONE rules, if submission-exclusive matches reach the full 10 minutes, the grappler with the most legitimate submission attempts will be deemed as the victor.

Kelly scored the lone catch of that high-stakes encounter last month and left Singapore Indoor Stadium with 26 pounds of gold in her possession.

In a recent guest appearance on The Chewjitsu Podcast, Kelly explained that her initial kneebar turned toe-hold attempt was sunk in deep and forced Khan on the defensive:

“It has to be like a legitimate submission attempt. When I had her against the cage and she opened her guard I grabbed her toes and I went to go crank it. If you look closely too, I was trying to crank the knee but she straightened her leg out to defend it, which I was trying to do a knee bar.”

The Silver Fox BJJ standout furthered:

“When we went to the ground I put more pressure and that's when [the referee] gave me a catch cause she started defending it with her hand and her leg so that means it’s a legitimate attempt when the person's trying to defend it or fight out of it. If I was attacking her leg from there and she tried to attack my leg then it would have been a catch because now she's trying to attack my leg. I have to either try to fight out of that or do a transition from it to not make it a catch.”

On the contrary, Khan secured a back take and was gunning for a rear naked choke early in the contest. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get it quite under the chin and was unable to get the finish or the ‘catch’ from the referee.

Kelly, on the other hand, clearly dominated in the latter half of the match with her top pressure, smooth transitions, slick guard passes, and marvelous use of the Circle walls.

Watch Danielle Kelly’s full interview below: