Costa Mesa jiu-jitsu champion Jessa Khan ready for next challenge
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The gym at Art of Jiu Jitsu Academy in Costa Mesa is packed on this Thursday morning, with dozens of athletes on the mat.
Music from Green Day plays over the sound system, but belts of just about every color can be seen.
The song gets to the chorus, and lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong wails that “everybody is a star.” On this morning that seems to be true. One of the studio’s brightest stars, world champion Jessa Khan, seems to fit right in, though maybe her black belt gives her away.
Khan, 21, is preparing for a big opportunity. She will fight Danielle Kelly on the ONE Fight Night 14 card that takes place Friday in Singapore.
The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu bout is for the inaugural ONE Women’s Atomweight Submission Grappling World Championship.
Khan, a Costa Mesa resident, has been signed with ONE Championship for about a year now, but this is her first fight with the organization. The 10-fight card will be broadcast live on Amazon Prime, starting at 5 p.m. Pacific time.
Khan is excited for the chance to make history in her fight against Kelly, who she previously beat via decision in 2021. But she also appreciates the fact that this is an all-female card.
“It’s a bunch of different girls doing a bunch of different martial arts, and I think that’s really cool,” she said. “I’m happy that I can represent women’s jiu-jitsu on that card … We need more platforms like this, more organizations and events that promote women in jiu-jitsu and sports.”
The enthusiasm makes sense, especially when Khan starts talking about the fact that she never had a strong female presence early in her martial arts career.
Now, she is that role model for the girls at Art of Jiu Jitsu (AOJ), where she coaches the 5-to-7-year-old program, as well as the 8-to-13-year-old program. Khan herself started the sport at age 8, while living in Hawaii as a self-described “Navy brat” who moved often due to her father’s service.
A decade later, Khan earned her black belt under her AOJ professor Guilherme Mendes in 2020. She laughs that her goal was to be a black belt by age 18, and she just met that deadline, getting it two days before her 19th birthday.
It hasn’t always been easy sledding after that.
“Something that I wasn’t used to was the challenge,” Khan said. “During all of the colored belts, I never had anyone challenging me. I never got to experience how it was to lose, and tough situations. When I got to black belt, I guess it kind of threw me off. Everyone’s really good, there are people that are world champions that you’re going against. Every fight that you do, you’re not fighting anyone easy. It was a lot for me to handle.”
Khan said she started having negative thoughts, even questioning if the sport was really for her. She took three months off from competition in the summer of 2022, working on training and boosting her confidence.
“Every athlete has their ups and downs, but most people don’t talk about it,” she said. “I think it’s better if you do, because then people can relate to you.”
Well, 2023 has definitely been an “up” year for the standout. Khan competed at the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation World Championship in Long Beach in June, and she won a gold medal in the light-featherweight division.
Khan said the moment was special, as she proved that she belongs. She added that she was proud of herself for sticking to it.
Now comes this opportunity for another world title. When she gets back from Asia, Khan said she wants to devote even more time to coaching at AOJ.
“We have a bunch of other girls that also coach, but I want to make it known that I’m the face of the women’s program and the head instructor,” she said. “Even now, most jiu-jitsu schools don’t have that still. I feel like AOJ is pretty well-known with having a good women’s program, so I want to continue growing that.”
None of her students will look back and say that they didn’t have that female presence growing up in the sport, that presence Khan herself lacked.
Individual accolades are nice, but building that community also has meaning.
“You know, it’s different having a male presence versus a female presence and connection,” Khan said. “Now, I kind of get to be that person for these other little girls that are trying to grow in the sport.”
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