ONE Championship‘s 10th-anniversary show, ONE X, delivered a treasure trove of martial arts excitement, and two of its stars have respectfully eyed a future matchup on the canvas.
American BJJ superstar Danielle Kelly made her highly-anticipated debut against Mei Yamaguchi. Although the grappling match went the distance and ended in a draw, Kelly got to show her dynamic attacks in the latter portion of the match.
Kelly spoke about future opponents she would like to see on the mat following the bout. After mentioning other top atomweight stars, the grappler brought up ONE Atomweight World Champion Angela Lee‘s name.
“I also saw Angela Lee pull off a good twister attempt. I’ve been working on those. I love those. So it’d be cool to have a match with her. She’s been fighting and grappling for a while, and she’s a black belt as well,” Lee told the South China Morning Post.
Lee responded to the prospective matchup during a post-event interview with the same outlet.
“I’d love to, you know. I love to grapple. You know, as soon as I turned 18, I was focusing entirely on MMA. But I didn’t get a chance to do a lot of the grappling competitions that I would’ve liked to. So I think it would be cool, for sure.”
The atomweight grappling contest would surely be one of the most exciting matchups that could be booked. Kelly has future plans to transition into mixed martial arts, and meeting against the current titleholder in a pure grappling match could be a great way to test the waters.
The hypothetical match would also be a litmus test for Lee’s ground game, which has currently netted her eight victories throughout her career.
Both ONE stars seem up for the challenge, but only time will tell if they enter the Circle against one another.
