"She didn't do a bad job" - Danielle Kelly says Mayssa Bastos proved that she was the more superior athlete in first fight

Danielle Kelly learned a lot from her last outing under the ONE Championship banner in August.

The 28-year-old may have finally reached the pinnacle by becoming the ONE atomweight submission grappling world champion but she's still learning and evolving.

At ONE Fight Night 24, Kelly faced a huge test as she looked to defend the title against the acclaimed Brazilian competitor, Mayssa Bastos.

Bastos won a close contest to become the new world champion in a match-up that Kelly was able to take a lot from heading into their rematch on Dec. 6.

The former champion gave her former foe plenty of credit for the performance that she produced in their first encounter.

While Kelly knows that Bastos is incredibly confident, she also believes that this might make the defending titleholder underestimate her, as she spoke about in a recent interview with JitsCast:

"Yeah and she didn't do a bad job [against me in our first fight]. But it just proves like she's very good and comfortable at what she does. But in my guess, I think she thinks I don't have a guard or anything."

Check out the full interview below:

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Danielle Kelly will look to prove Mayssa Bastos wrong

Danielle Kelly has been proving people wrong her entire life so this mentality is something that she's very used to.

It's one of her greatest strengths as an athlete and a martial artist because she will give everything in her training and in the contest to show the doubters what she's capable of.

Kelly will need to battle the odds at ONE Fight Night 26 when she meets Bastos again at Lumpinee Stadium.

Bastos is an incredibly experienced opponent. If Kelly overlooks the former champion even for an instant, it could change the outcome.