"I've lived only for jiu-jitsu" - Mayssa Bastos carries vast wealth of experience into title clash with atomweight queen Danielle Kelly
Mayssa Bastos is set to compete in the biggest contest of her career to date in the co-main event of ONE Fight Night 24.
The Brazilian has dedicated her life to competing in jiu-jitsu but on August 2 at Lumpinee Stadium, she gets the opportunity to reap the rewards.
Bastos will be going up against Danielle Kelly with the champion's atomweight submission grappling title on the line for the first time.
Whilst Kelly may be the more familiar name and face to ONE Championship fans, that doesn't mean that her opponent hasn't been putting in the work from an early age.
In a recent interview with ONE Championship, Bastos spoke about how her life has revolved around grappling since she first found a love for a it:
"Since I started, I was training a lot. I spent a lot of time at the gym and was always competing. I've lived only for jiu-jitsu since I was little. On weekends in Brazil, there were always a lot of jiu-jitsu competitions, and there was a weekend when I participated in two competitions on the same day. I kept that pace of competition until the black belt, and it helped me grow as an athlete."
Mayssa Bastos will look to put that dedication to good use
It often takes that kind of single-minded focus to reach the very top, and that's what Mayssa Bastos is looking to do at ONE Fight Night 24.
Danielle Kelly shares a similar story about how she invested so much of her energy and focus into grappling after she first discovered it.
ONE Championship fans did get a chance to see what Bastos is capable of back at ONE Fight Night 20.
She earned a unanimous decision victory over Kanae Yamada the last time that she stepped inside Lumpinee Stadium and this time around, she will look to leave it with the atomweight gold.
ONE Fight Night 24 will air live in US Primetime, free of charge for Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada.