Danielle Kelly shares what it was like getting caught in the ‘Ayaka Lock’

After surging victorious at ONE Fight Night 7, Danielle Kelly shared what it felt like to get caught in one of her opponent’s greatest weapons, the ‘Ayaka Lock.’

American BJJ star Danielle Kelly locked horns with former ONE women’s strawweight world title contender Ayaka Miura on Friday, which was exactly the type of scramble Kelly had anticipated and practiced for.

Miura, a Japanese judo black belt, has four submission wins in MMA via arm locks from the scarf hold position. It is a highly effective maneuver in BJJ that is very difficult to escape from, especially if the person defending the attack is in a headlock.

Fortunately for Kelly, she escaped from Miura’s lock early, but it came with a few unintended scrapes and bruises.

The Philadelphia native said during the post-event interview:

“I've been drilling since my last match. I've been drilling a lot of armbar escapes and blocks like that. She would go for it, but I think the most annoying or painful thing was the squeeze on my neck or my head. My arm was pretty flexible, so every time, I just kept turning my elbow down. She would just kind of extend this or like in my elbow."

She added:

"Yeah, I think the only really annoying thing was my head was getting squeezed, and it was her hip and her arm on my head squeezing; that wasn't fun. I felt that a lot. My arm was fine. I'm just really dead.”

Watch the full interview below:

Despite facing adversity early on, Danielle Kelly got her revenge with two submission attempts of her own in the final minutes of the grappling match. The BJJ star went for the choke twice from the back but Miura proved resilient. Both women went the distance but Kelly ultimately got the nod for most submission attempts.

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Danielle Kelly calls out former rival Jessa Khan for her next grappling bout

The prospect of running things back again with Jessa Khan has always been at the back of Danielle Kelly’s mind.

That proved to be the case once again when Kelly called out the 2022 Pan IBJJF champion after beating Ayaka Miura at ONE Fight Night 7.

Speaking to SCMP MMA, the Silver Fox BJJ gym representative doubled down by saying:

“I would like that, but she hasn’t comepted yet. I know she signed, and it’s one of the few people I know that signed to my weight class under ONE Championship, so I would really like to get that one.”