Danielle Kelly eager to exact revenge on Jessa Khan: “She’s beatable”

Danielle Kelly wants to earn some redemption at ONE Fight Night 14 on Prime Video.

Her fight, which airs live via Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service on September 29, allows her to settle the score with rival Jessa Khan. After all, this is a rematch of their February 2021 encounter, which the latter won by unanimous decision.

Kelly conceded that her mental state at the time was not conducive to performing well.

“I was too much into the media. I was like, ‘I’m really nervous. I’m nervous to go against a high-level grappler.’ And I guess she was one of the first few that I went against. And now my mindset is really different,” she said.

However, much has changed since that fateful night.

Kelly has become one of the most popular grapplers on ONE Championship’s roster. In fact, she’s delivered three captivating performances since joining the organization in early 2022.

The 27-year-old phenom from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, wants to continue her momentum while also scoring some vindication.

“I feel like I know her game really well. My exchanges, my defense, my offense is going to be way ahead of her and whatever she gives me. I’m going to give her something back,” Kelly said.

“I train with really tough people, really tough girls. I have an idea what she’s going to throw at me, and I’ll be ready.”

Danielle Kelly plans to stop Jessa Khan in under 10 minutes

In addition to revenge, Danielle Kelly intends to leave ONE Fight Night 14 with 26 pounds of gold around her waist.

Adding a layer of anticipation to the already intriguing one-round, 10-minute matchup, the promotion has put the inaugural ONE Women’s Atomweight Submission Grappling World Title up for grabs.

The stakes are high, and Jessa Khan enters the bout coming off her 2023 IBJJF World Championships gold medal-winning run. Despite that, Danielle Kelly has made it clear that she will put her best foot forward.

“I feel like I train with the best, and I’m going to prove that you don’t have to be a World Champion to be better than anyone else. You don’t have to have a bunch of titles,” she said.

“She’s probably the favorite in this match, and I’m going to prove that [even though] I’m not a World Champ, I can submit her. She’s beatable. So that’s what I’m going to prove.”

Kelly isn’t merely strategizing to defeat Khan and walk away with the belt. She wants to achieve this victory in a memorable way.

“I really want a twister because I know she got twistered before, so I’d really like to do that in [our] grappling match – pull off a twister on her or take her back and choke her out. One of the two,” she said.

This is just one of three women’s World Title bouts scheduled for ONE Fight Night 14.