Daniel Kelly has climbed to the summit of his previous two sports, so why start doubting him now?
Kelly represented Australia in judo at four Olympic Games over a 12-year span and made it to the Commonwealth Games in wrestling.
The 37-year-old has proven he will leave no stone unturned to be physically ready to take on the world’s best, and he has the mental toughness to make it to the top.
When Kelly decided to jump into the octagon and give mixed martial arts a try, his move was met with derision from some quarters.
Kelly, who runs Resilience Training Centre at Footscray, teaching kids the finer points of martial arts, wanted a new edge to his competitive sporting exploits.
He had long admired the athletes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) of the United States and the Pride Fighting Championship (PFC) of Japan, so he thought, why not give it go?
“The way I break down MMA in a really basic way is striking, take downs and ground game,” Kelly told Star Weekly.
“The judo has given me an okay base in ground game, an okay base in the take downs, but I started striking from scratch and obviously had to change my tactics and quite a few of the skills in the ground game and take- downs, because there’s no judo jacket in MMA.
“The biggest thing that I had to do was start doing striking, the boxing and the kickboxing.”
So Kelly went to work.
Every day in the gym, he boxed and kickboxed, then repeated it the next day and the next.
Once he felt comfortable that he had the skills to compete locally in MMA, he stepped into the octagon.
Seven wins in seven bouts earned Kelly a spot on the card for UFC Fight Night 55 in Sydney.
The Westmeadows resident still had his knockers, particularly after a first round submission to Sheldon Westcott in the Ultimate Fighter reality television show.
Kelly, who is under no illusions of the dangers of competing in such a brutal sport as MMA, was hellbent on proving his doubters wrong.
He stepped up in front of a massive crowd at Allphones Arena in Sydney for his UFC debut, beating American Luke Zachrich by submission with a kimura.
It was the moment Kelly arrived in the sport, and one he will always cherish.
“It was very satisfying getting your first win in the UFC and proving quite a few people wrong who said you don’t belong there, you shouldn’t be doing it, you’re too old and this and that.
“I was on the reality TV show and that didn’t go very well for me so that was a bit of redemption for me in Sydney to prove to myself and everyone that I can compete at that level.”
Kelly is no one-shot wonder, and now he wants to carve out a career in the UFC.
All going well, he plans to compete at the top level for at least four years.
“I want to get as far as I can in this sport – I wouldn’t be doing it otherwise.”
Kelly is married to Maria Pekli, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist and Olympic bronze medallist in judo. Pekli is supportive of her husband’s career move to MMA. Meanwhile, Kelly takes the next step in his new career when he competes on the UFC Fight Night main card in Colorado on February 14.
