Danielle Kelly shares interesting story about using jiu-jitsu at school to defend herself against bullies

American grappler Danielle Kelly shared a story in vivid detail about the day she used jiu-jitsu on a school bully to defend herself.

In a few days’ time, Danielle Kelly will be en route to Thailand for her next submission grappling showdown at ONE Fight Night 7: Lineker vs. Andrade II. She will face MMA fighter and judo black belt Ayaka Miura inside the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium on Feb. 24.

As such, Kelly has been busy doing promotional interviews to talk about her next bout. In one of her interviews, the American star was asked to share an interesting story about the time she first used her jiu-jitsu skills on a school bully.

Here’s how she described it to Game Breakers:

“I vaguely remember but I was in seventh or was it eighth grade and this girl was in ninth grade. I was in a big school so a lot of the bigger kids in the bigger grades were with the smaller grades. So yeah this bigger girl she was in ninth grade and she was picking on me and one day, she kind of shoved me in the hallway and then I already had six months of jiu-jitsu experience so I was kinda feeling myself.

She continued to add:

And I was like ‘You know what I’m pretty confident and she’s being really mean’ and I went for the single leg takedown because I just got into wrestling that year too, so I went out to test my wrestling skills and once I took her down, she kinda did those kicks when someone’s panicking and they just kick like panicky or whatever.”

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Danielle Kelly recalls getting rewarded by her dad for standing up for herself

Danielle Kelly would’ve never grown to be as confident and fearless as she is now without the sport of jiu-jitsu. Although the 27-year-old sensation doesn’t condone violence, she also believes it’s necessary to protect yourself from violence being directed at you.

And that’s exactly what she did. Kelly finished the story by adding:

“She almost kicked me in the face, but I did like this back position, and I took her back, and I started punching her and then I guess submitting her face until an aid came by and got me in trouble for defending myself. Yeah, I got suspended for like three days but I didn’t get in trouble. My dad took me to Dunkin to get Munchkins.”

Danielle Kelly is a force to be reckoned with and if her next opponent underestimates her skills, then she’s in for a rude awakening.

Watch Danielle Kelly look for her next submission on February 24 at ONE Fight Night 7, live and for free on Prime Video with an active Amazon subscription for North American audiences.