Mayssa Bastos knows she’s in for a stiff test when she makes her first ONE Women’s Atomweight Submission Grappling World Title defense. On December 6 in U.S. primetime, the Brazilian superstar will rematch former titleholder Danielle Kelly at ONE Fight Night 26: Lee vs. Rasulov on Prime Video, which airs live from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
The pair first collided in August at ONE Fight Night 24, where Bastos earned a closely contested, fast-paced decision victory to dethrone the American and become the first-ever ONE Submission Grappling World Champion from Brazil. Looking back on her World Title-winning performance, the 27-year-old said she was pleased with her performance but needs to improve her finishing mechanics and step up her aggression in order to retain the 26 pounds of gold.
Bastos told onefc.com: “I thought I fought well, but there were some adjustments missing. I managed to land some finishing attacks, but I needed a little more adjustment to get the submission. What surprised me was that she was a little more aggressive than I was expecting.”
Indeed, Kelly came out guns blazing in the first bout, scoring a catch with an inside heel hook attempt around the match’s midway point. Bastos roared back with submission attacks of her own and latched onto a belly-down heel hook attempt to even the score at one catch apiece – and ultimately earn the judges’ nod.
A master technician who is widely regarded as having one of the sport’s most dynamic guard games, Bastos has watched that match carefully and identified some potential weaknesses in Kelly’s arsenal. While she’s not about to reveal her game plan, the submission grappling queen promises more offense at ONE Fight Night 26: “Studying our last fight, I saw that she has some gaps. At the moment, I’m not going to say what those gaps are because I want to surprise her in the fight.
“But what I can say is that I intend to be a little more aggressive in this fight and make her expose herself more because she will start to make a few more mistakes and then the gaps will appear.”
With more aggression could come more opportunities to find the match-ending submission. Now a ONE World Champion who has proven time and time again to be one of the best in history, Bastos doesn’t just want to defend her gold – she wants the finish: “This time I see this fight ending in a submission. I think we’ll both be very focused on making that happen, on making a better fight.
“I’m very focused on making adjustments to finish the fight because that’s my goal. I want to go out there, put on a show for the fans, and come out with the victory.”
Mayssa Bastos knows that if she’s able to submit Danielle Kelly on December 6, she’ll likely be in line for a coveted US$50,000 performance bonus – a practically unheard-of sum in the still-growing sport of submission grappling. She walked away with a performance bonus in her first battle with Kelly and admits that it gives her plenty of inspiration to put on an electrifying performance in the rematch: “It’s a very good motivation, right? There’s nothing better than being rewarded for having had a great performance. The reward is very good, so it just motivates me.”
Of course, Bastos is happy to have received a bonus previously. Never one to settle for mediocrity, though, she aims to not only win another US$50,000 but to outdo herself and secure a more decisive victory. She added: “In the first fight, I got this performance bonus, and my goal is to get this award again. In fact, my goal is to have a better performance and come out with a victory by submission.
“If I win the prize, I will save and invest it, like I did last time.”
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