“I could never be a teacher” - Danielle Kelly smirks at her ironic twist of fate to teaching BJJ classes

When life decides to show someone’s fate, it will find a way to lead you on that path, no matter what. Take Danielle Kelly’s experience as a great example. The newly crowned ONE atomweight submission grappling world champion shared this on her Instagram post.

On November 13, 2023, Kelly revealed that, back when she was in school, she never imagined herself to be a teacher of any sort because of how shy she was back then. But now, she is one of the few people in the gym sharing her input in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

The 27-year-old captioned her social media post with:

“I remember being in school and as a shy kid I was always tell myself 'nah I could never be a teacher' welp here I am now 🤓🤓🤓 (a different kind obvi)”

Because of her stacked credentials and a mountain of accomplishments as a professional athlete, Kelly is one of the tenured fighters in Silver Fox BJJ who other practitioners go to for tips and improvements on their jiu-jitsu skills.

She reached the pinnacle of success when she avenged her defeat to former tormentor Jessa Khan in September 2023 at ONE Fight Night 14 and became the inaugural atomweight submission grappling world champion in the promotion.

Prior to her championship win, Kelly appeared in four ONE Championship grappling scraps and won three of them. She defeated Mariia Molchanova and Ayaka Miura. Her lone stalemate result was against Mei Yamaguchi.

The pride of Philadelphia is eager to be an active world champion who constantly defends her world title against any challenger that will be put in front of her. Kelly is also open to crossing over to mixed martial arts and pursuing the sport with the goal of eventually winning another 26-pound golden belt.

The replay of ONE Fight Night 14 is available anytime on demand for Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America.