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Grappling star Danielle Kelly is gearing up to face judo black belt Ayaka Miura—and the 27-year-old believes judo fighters are harder matchups than wrestlers.
Kelly knows just how talented her upcoming opponent is on the mats. The dangerous Japanese judoka has seven MMA bouts to her name under ONE Championship, including a strawweight title fight against Xiong Jing Nan.
Danielle Kelly has faced a plethora of wrestlers throughout her submission grappling career, but she asserts that judo fighters are tougher to face. She told SCMP MMA:
"From standing, judo has a lot of advantages because mostly jiu-jitsu people, I mean, very rarely do you have a wrestler who is good at jiu-jitsu but like a top jiu-jitsu person. They don't really practice stand-up a lot."
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The Silver Fox BJJ affiliate added:
"Luckily for me, I've been wrestling my whole life. I'm getting back into it now but I used to wrestle as a kid. I think judo, their submissions are pretty similar, back takes and it's similar with the Gi."
Miura is making her submission grappling debut against Kelly. She owns four submission victories inside the circle in MMA bouts, including a Scarf-Hold Americana stoppage over Rayane Bastos in May 2021.
Check out Danielle Kelly's full interview with SCMP MMA below:
Danielle Kelly expects to have a big year in 2023
Kelly had a successful first year under the ONE Championship banner—going 1-0-1 with a submission victory over Mariia Molchanova in her most recent outing.
The New Jersey native plans on continuing her momentum into 2023, telling ONE:
“I’m still figuring out as we all are, I’m looking forward to what 2023 will bring. Thank you to everyone that has been in my corner since day one. I’m looking to keep proving myself and why I deserve to be out there”.
The promotion introduced two submission grappling world titles in 2022. Kelly is hoping that ONE adds another one to her division. If they do, she expects to become the inaugural champion at some point in 2023.
