Jessa Khan recalls dominating Danielle Kelly in their first match-up: “She was mostly just defending”

The inaugural atomweight submission grappling world champion will be crowned on September 29 at ONE Fight Night 14, as debuting Jessa Khan faces a familiar foe in Danielle Kelly in the stacked card, which also highlights two other women’s world title fights and a special rules fight.

Before she exchanged submission attempts anew with Kelly inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Khan recalled their first meeting two years ago, in February 2021, when Khan won via decision.

The 21-year-old narrated to ONE Championship how she dominated the older Kelly in that specific match and how she came away with the victory.

Khan stated:

"I wasn’t able to submit her, but I was pretty much leading the fight. I was able to hit like 10 different submission attempts, and that’s pretty much what won me the fight. She was mostly just defending."

Since their last encounter, the two have significantly improved and established themselves as top BJJ black belts. For Khan, she bagged the gold medals in the IBJFF Pan American Championships in 2022 and the IBJFF World Championships in 2023.

On the other hand, Kelly signed with ONE Championship and stayed undefeated in three matches. She went on the beat Mariia Molchanova and Ayaka Miura and drawing with Mei Yamaguchi.

The Art of Jiu-Jitsu representative looks to reassert her mastery over the Silver Fox BJJ athlete in the historic clash to not just further improve her head-to-head record against Kelly but also finally call herself a world champion.

Catch ONE Fight Night 14: Stamp vs. Ham on Prime Video on September 29, as it is free of charge for Prime Video subscribers in North America.