Adele Fornarino

Adele Marie Fornarino was born on September 17, 1999, in Melbourne, Australia, and became the country’s biggest name in grappling. Developed by coach David Hart, who promoted her to black belt in December 2022, she represents Dominance MMA in Melbourne and André Galvão’s Atos, where she spends long training camps.

Her talent showed early. She won the IBJJF Worlds as a juvenile blue belt in 2016 and, at brown belt, won the 2022 European No-Gi and No-Gi Worlds. As a black belt she won the 2023 No-Gi Pans and European No-Gi, was No-Gi world runner-up that year and won the No-Gi world title in 2025.

The achievement that changed her career came in August 2024 in Las Vegas. After qualifying through the Asian trials with three submissions in about three minutes, she won double gold at ADCC: she took the new under 55 kg division, with wins over Mayssa Bastos, Jasmine Rocha and Bianca Basílio, and the absolute, beating Bia Mesquita in the final. She was the first Australian champion in the tournament’s history.

Her aggressive style, attacking the legs from the first minute, became her trademark at pro events. At WNO 22 she submitted Amanda Alequin in less than half a minute as a replacement for Ffion Davies, and at WNO 25 she won the strawweight belt by submitting Sophia Cassella. In 2025 she lost to Ffion by split decision at UFC Fight Pass Invitational and to Helena Crevar in the semifinals of Craig Jones Invitational 2.

In UFC BJJ she won her first two matches in the first round, with a kneebar on Alex Enriquez and a straight ankle lock on Carol Brunacio in the flyweight Grand Prix semifinal. In the final on October 8, 2026, she lost the belt to Cássia Moura by split decision after ending the first round with a heel hook locked in, and she earned one of the night’s performance bonuses.