Danielle Kelly on Jessa Khan’s controversial no-catch: “She couldn’t really get under my neck and I controlled her arms”

Newly crowned ONE atomweight submission grappling world champion Danielle Kelly offered her take on the controversial no-catch during her contest with Jessa Khan at ONE Fight Night 14.

After two years of waiting, Kelly finally earned her chance at redemption when she squared off with former foe Jessa Khan as part of the promotion’s stacked return to Singapore Indoor Stadium in September.

After 10 minutes of entertaining action, Kelly emerged victorious, earning the win and etching her name in the history books as the first-ever female submission grappling world champion in ONE Championship.

But the victory did come with a pinch of controversy as many believe Khan was deprived of a catch from the referee after narrowly sinking in a choke on Danielle Kelly.

Sharing her take on the somewhat controversial call during an appearance on the Chewjitsu Podcast, Kelly explained that Khan was never able to quite get under her neck and, as a result, never really put her in any kind of danger, which resulted in a no-catch call.

The Silver Fox BJJ affiliate said:

“There was little argument about her not getting a catch on the neck but if you look closely like her arms and like her wrist were like at my nose level and it's like I'm not going to tap to like you squeezing my head like it's not doing anything.”

“So yeah I mean from there, like she couldn't really get under my neck and I controlled her arms and I used that position to like square up with her into her guard and stand up and I knew. I think after that I was just more so comfortable like I just knew I was gonna go over her.”

If you missed any of the action or want to relive an epic night in ONE Championship history, the ONE Fight Night 14 replay can be watched anytime on demand via Amazon Prime Video in North America.