“She kind of insulted me” - Danielle Kelly says beef with Angela Lee ‘kind of like high school’

According to Danielle Kelly, the beef between Angela Lee and her feels like high school.

The jiu-jitsu phenom recently wrapped up a submission grappling bout with Japanese icon Mei Yamaguchi at ONE X last March. Although it ended in a draw, Kelly’s dominant performance earned her a $50K bonus for her efforts.

It's been close to five months since her bout against Yamaguchi and the Philadelphia-native is anxious to get back into the circle.

All of Danielle’s opponents up until now have been MMA fighters with world-class experience in wrestling. So it was only natural for Kelly to call out one of the best submission specialists reigning over the atomweight division, Angela Lee.

What started off as a friendly call out has since turned the two women at odds with one another.

Following the joint press conference between ONE and Amazon Prime Video in July, Lee seemed bothered by Kelly’s remarks about fighting "only elite grapplers" which to Lee, insinuated she wasn’t part of that limited group.

Hearing about her discontent through posts on social media, Kelly remained unfazed. Interestingly, the American recently doubled down on her rivalry with Angela Lee and told SCMP MMA:

“So it's kind of like, this is like high school, you know. You got mad at me speaking the truth, you know. But then, like, I'm kind of embracing it. Like, it is fun. It's free. It's just motivating because people just don't seem to take me seriously. Neither does she. So I mean, in a way, she kind of insulted me for saying that she would be able to submit me or something, whatever. Like, I mean, if you're that competent, you would start making moves on a match, you know. Like, call me out or something, or she kind of did, I guess, but now you're going to backpedal and say, I guess, special rules, or I guess MMA.”

Check out the full interview with Kelly below:

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Danielle Kelly wants to accomplish more in jiu-jitsu before moving to MMA

Danielle Kelly feels she’s got more to accomplish in jiu-jitsu before crossing over to MMA. Although fans want to see a potential showdown between Angela Lee and Kelly in either a submission grappling match or in MMA, they’ll have to wait a little longer.

The 26-year-old standout told the media at the press conference in LA:

“It’s definitely a possibility [about MMA], but I want to be comfortable first. I also feel like I need to accomplish more in jiu-jitsu. I want to challenge myself, and if that time comes, it’ll come.”

As of now, ONE Championship is looking to finalize her next opponent.

Catch Danielle Kelly's press conference highlights below: