Philadelphia grappler Danielle Kelly embraces the underdog mentality in her rematch with Mayssa Bastos

Being labeled an underdog isn’t anything new for Philadelphia native Danielle Kelly. On her journey to become the inaugural ONE women’s atomweight submission grappling world champion, Kelly worked hard to earn the respect of others — from being bullied in elementary school to being the only girl on her high school wrestling team.

After losing her belt to Mayssa Bastos at ONE Fight Night 24 in August, the former champion is looking to avenge her loss and reclaim the world title.

“This is definitely not the first time I’m being labeled an underdog,” Kelly told The Inquirer. “I am always the underdog. I feel like people just look at me and don’t think I put in the hard work as the rest of the girls or just in general. But my opponents, the ones I go against, I’m not going against tomato cans. I’m getting legit girls who have won world championships, but I just don’t think that I’ll get the same respect as others.”

» READ MORE: How Danielle Kelly’s Philadelphia roots helped mold her into a world-class fighter

Before Kelly heads to Bangkok, Thailand, to compete against Bastos on Friday night at ONE Fight Night 26 on Amazon’s Prime Video (8 p.m.), she reflected on her career as a trailblazer in women’s jiu-jitsu.

After getting bullied in elementary school, Kelly started training in karate at the age of 8 at Tiger Schulmann’s Martial Arts in Northeast Philly. Shortly after, she discovered the art of jiu-jitsu at age 9.

“We moved to the suburbs outside of Philly, and right when I got into the new elementary school, I was getting bullied a lot,” Kelly said. “I was trying to find another striking or karate school because I didn’t know what jiu-jitsu was at the time. Then I stumbled across jiu-jitsu. That’s when I found out ground fighting is basically jiu-jitsu in case somebody takes you down. That’s kind of how I got started, and I just stayed with it.”

As Kelly trained in jiu-jitsu, she joined her high school wrestling team to get more reps. Since most schools didn’t have a girls’ wrestling team — today, 243 PIAA schools have one — Kelly was the only girl on the boys’ team. Again, she felt she needed to prove herself.

“Once I got to that high school, I did not get the same amount of attention as the guys did, so that was a little bit of an eye-opener,” Kelly said. “Unfortunately, that still happens today, even though there’s a lot more girl wrestling teams. But it’s almost 2025. You would think that people would treat women the same, but unfortunately there’s still people like my old coach that do that.”

Kelly realized she would have to work harder to succeed in combat sports, shattering any boundaries set on her by an unsupportive coach.

» READ MORE: ‘I knew I was going to beat her’: Philly’s Danielle Kelly reflects on her ONE grappling world title

“It was definitely challenging because I saw a different side of the training,” Kelly said. “The amount of work and pressure that these kids had from the parents and the coaches made me realize that this is what training was like and that once I get older, it’s going to get harder. … When I transferred high schools, I didn’t really have a good supporting wrestling coach as I did in the last school. So that kind of made me turned off about the idea of wanting to be an Olympic wrestler. It kind of just made me stick with jiu-jitsu and make a career out of it.”

And Kelly did just that. She continued to train at Silver Fox BJJ, where she earned her black belt at age 24.

Before signing with ONE Championship, Kelly made a name for herself as one of the most talented female grapplers with submission grappling victories over several MMA stars, including Carla Esparza and Cynthia Calvillo.

Her skill soon caught the attention of ONE Championship, signing with the promotion in 2022. Her debut bout ended in a draw against Mei Yamaguchi. Despite the result, Kelly received a $50,000 bonus for her performance and made history alongside Yamaguchi in the promotion’s first-ever women’s submission bout.

“It was surreal just because it was the first women’s grappling match for ONE,” Kelly said. “And also it just kind of shows that jiu-jitsu is growing. It’ll probably start being a mainstream sport as other promotions open up grappling.

“To be part of that milestone where, like, especially women’s jiu-jitsu is getting paid the same amount as the guys, it’s a good feeling. So there’s definitely a lot of emotions that day when I competed against Mei. I think even since then, I didn’t really like my performance, so it just made me want to work harder after that.”

After her debut against Yamaguchi, Kelly went on to reel off three straight wins and became the inaugural ONE Women’s atomweight submission grappling world champion by defeating Jessa Khan.

In her first title defense, Kelly entered as a slight favorite over Bastos, but the Brazilian phenom defeated Kelly, securing a close unanimous decision.

“I was pretty heartbroken, but I think I got over it a little bit after because if I give a reaction, it kind of gives her validation,” Kelly said. “I’m actually the only titleholder that did not get a bonus, so that was a little disheartening, especially because I felt like I initiated a lot of things in the match with her. I would say going into this match it’s going to be more motivation and hopefully get the finish or keep attacking her. Because they’re all beatable. That’s the way I see it now.”

» READ MORE: Lia Lewandowski fought to be taken seriously. Now, she’s locked in on her pro boxing debut.

This time, the former champion is entering the bout as an underdog. She’s approaching the rematch the same way she did in her title win over Khan.

“I think I was a heavy underdog, and my mindset was I had a lot going on and I just felt like I wasn’t getting the respect,” Kelly said. “Because she had beaten me previously, it just made me realize, ‘This girl is beatable, I’m just going to go out there and just fight her and just put on a show. It doesn’t matter what she won, it doesn’t matter that she beat me before. It does not matter.’

“That’s kind of like the mindset I have going into this match. Got to risk it for the biscuit.”