‘I’m being overlooked’ – Danielle Kelly is ready to upset Mayssa Bastos in ONE world title defense

Reigning ONE atomweight submission grappling world champion Danielle Kelly spoke about her upcoming title defense against Mayssa Bastos at ONE Fight Night 24.

Danielle Kelly will come into her upcoming match against Mayssa Bastos as the reigning and defending champion, but she says she’s the underdog against the decorated Brazilian.

The pair are set to collide in a 10-minute, submission-only contest on Friday, August 2 in the co-main event of ONE Fight Night 24 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The match will mark Kelly’s first defense of her ONE atomweight submission grappling world title. The American won the title last September with an upset victory over then-reigning IBJJF world champion Jessa Khan, avenging a previous loss to the Art of Jiu-Jitsu product.

Kelly will now look to prove yet again that she belongs among the planet’s top competitors when she locks horns with the most accomplished BJJ athlete of the sport’s lightest weight classes.

“I’m still a champion… but I’m also being kind of overlooked in a way,” Kelly said in an interview with ONE Championship.

Just two weeks after Bastos challenges for Kelly’s title, she’s set to compete in the 55kg division at the 2024 ADCC World Championships. According to Kelly, that’s an indication that Bastos is taking her lightly.

“Why do I feel like I’m being overlooked? I feel like if she’s taking ADCC very seriously, most people wouldn’t really take the match two weeks before the tournament. So to me, I feel like she thinks I’m going to be an easy match for her.”

While Kelly thinks Bastos might be looking past her on August 2, she admits that the nine-time IBJJF world champion will surely give it her all when the two share the ring.

Still, Kelly is critical of her opponent’s style, pointing out that Bastos occasionally cruises to a decision or points win rather than pushing for the submission until the end.

“I mean when the match starts, she’s going to take it seriously,” said the Philadelphia native. “Like, she’s a multiple-time world champion and everything. But I feel I can tell with some matches, she either turns up the pace or she slows it down when she gets her advantage or something.”

Stylistically, the match represents a bit of a clash of styles. In one corner, Bastos is arguably the greatest berimbolo player the sport has ever seen. Kelly, meanwhile, is an all-around grappler but tends to do her best work when attacking with leg locks.

In breaking down the match, Kelly notices that both Bastos and Khan train out of the famed Art of Jiu-Jitsu, and both are excellent back-takers:

“I feel like she might play legs because she was doing that in her last match. But if I have to look from the outside, if her coaches are doing some studying on me, I feel like they’re going to tell her to try to take my back just as Jessa [Khan] did in the first one. I don’t think they’re training together, though. But they’re teammates, so they’re definitely studying film together. On the berimbolo stuff, I used to be intimidated by it, but I feel like if I just go in there, get in her face, and be aware of what she’s trying to do and what her best things are, that will help me.”

Ultimately, Kelly is confident she’s turned a corner in her career.

Before, when she was still a rising star in the sport of submission grappling, she struggled against more accomplished competitors like Bastos. That mindset has shifted in a big way, she says:

“I like to be humble. I don’t like to kind of, like, say, ‘Oh, I’m gonna do this or that.’ I mean, we’re also 115-pounders, so it’s going to be hard to break each other. But, realistically, that’s what I want to do.

“And I feel like because of how accomplished she is, I think years ago, if I went against her, if I first, like, noticed her, I would kind of be starstruck. Now, I’m kind of just going in there now. Like, I don’t really give a sh*t what you accomplished or how many titles you have.”

How to watch: Danielle Kelly vs. Mayssa Bastos takes place at ONE Fight Night 24 and will air live on Prime Video (free with Amazon Plus subscription) on August 2, 2024, beginning at 8:00 PM ET.