Kelly, who hails from the United States, recently announced her signing with ONE to compete in both submission grappling and mixed martial arts (MMA). Though no date or opponent has been confirmed for her debut, the 26-year-old BJJ black belt is confident that she has what it takes to prevail in her weight class.

“I want to start doing jiu-jitsu first for ONE, just to get me ready, just to feel the cage and feel the audience and be prepared,” she told the South China Morning Post in an interview. “Just to have a good feel for it and be ready mentally. Eventually, I want to be in the atom weight [MMA] division and dominate.”

The division is stacked with talents as evidenced by the recently concluded ONE women’s atomweight world grand prix, which pitted Thailand’s Stamp Fairtex against India’s Ritu Phogat in the final. The former emerged victorious and earned the right to challenge Angela Lee for her atomweight gold at ONE X on March 26.

The star-studded tournament presented exciting action from some of the best female fighters in the world right now. Showcasing multiple techniques from various martial arts disciplines, the tournament may have provided a glimpse of the opponents Kelly will have to face in the future.

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Nevertheless, she is confident that her transition to MMA will be seamless, citing the number one-ranked fighter in ONE’s featherweight division Garry Tonon, who currently holds a perfect slate of 6-0 in MMA since transitioning from grappling in 2018.

“I’ve been watching Garry Tonon ever since he had his first ONE fight. I’m still amazed how he puts his jiujitsu and wrestling into MMA altogether. That’s what gives me confidence. If you look at other high-level jiujitsu athletes in MMA, they’re doing pretty well,” she said.

While she is confident that her jiujitsu repertoire can help her thrive, she understands that to conquer MMA, improvement in other departments is equally important. With that in mind, she is looking forward to training at the state-of-the-art Evolve facility in Singapore.

“I’ve been working on my striking, even before the pandemic happened and still working on my jiu-jitsu because I think it’s important for MMA,” she said.

“I definitely want to check out the Evolve gym. It looks amazing. I’ve seen their videos and it looks like they have really good training and a really good staff there.”

Watch ONE: LIGHTS OUT on March 11 on the ONE Super App and subscribe to ONE Championship on YouTube!

This article is published in collaboration with ONE Championship

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