Jessa Khan is hurtling toward her first match in ONE Championship, and she’s not short of confidence ahead of the opportunity in front of her.

The Cambodian-American grappler is set to face Danielle Kelly for the second time in their careers at ONE Fight Night 14: Stamp vs. Ham on Friday, September 29, and their rematch will have infinitely higher stakes because it will be for the inaugural ONE Women’s Atomweight Submission Grappling World Championship.

Jessa Khan looking to finish Danielle Kelly once again 

As their match draws near, Khan brushes off any notion that she feels pressure coming in as a promotional newcomer. “It helps me to know that I already beat her once. So, it’s more on her. She needs to prove herself – not me,” she told ONE in a recent interview. The pair met for the first time in 2021. Back then, Khan was competing in her first tournament as a black belt while Kelly was making waves in the professional circuit.

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Their match lasted all of the allotted 15 minutes, and Khan was declared the winner via decision at the end. The Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy standout believes her aggressiveness helped her edge out her rival on that occasion.“I wasn’t able to submit her, but I was pretty much leading the fight. I was able to attempt like 10 different submissions, and that’s pretty much what won me the fight. She was mostly just defending,” the 21-year-old recalled.

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Kelly has since emerged as a key figure in ONE Championship’s renewed drive to promote submission grappling. She made her debut against veteran Mei Yamaguchi at ONE X in March 2022 and immediately announced herself thanks to her devastating aggression. Though the meeting was ruled a draw; it was undeniable that Kelly had chops, and she confirmed that by submitting Sambo World Champion Mariia Molchanova in her second outing at ONE on Prime Video 4 in November. The American star then overcame former MMA World Title challenger Ayaka Miura this past February to truly cement herself as one to watch.

Khan is confident about repeating the magic of their first encounter

Despite her old rival’s improvements since their last meeting, Khan is determined to get what she failed to do back in 2021 – a submission finish on September 29.

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“My main goal is to try to get a submission. That kind of bugged me in our fight. The first time, it was 15 minutes. I had more time, but I still wasn’t able to submit her even though I tried multiple times,” she said.“So I’m definitely going to try to fix whatever went wrong in that match. That way, I can actually get a submission. That’s something that’s been bugging me.”