ep#102: Adele Fornarino - Australian BJJ World Champion
I definitely want to be a double champ. Like, I think that I can be competitive in both of those divisions. I think that I'm very my my game, my style works very well in both of those divisions. I think it's just motivating the guys that are actually holding the belts to fight for the belts. I think that's the that's now becoming the tricky part.
Adele Fornarino:And then I just kept rotating with it to to keep it nice and tight and just keep it finding that pressure, and then we ended up kind of on the ground and that's when when I could put a full, like, bridge into it with my hips. And then at at this point, I knew that it that it was that it was on and it was tight and that she wouldn't be able to to pull her foot out. All of my major training camps, are, predominantly done out of out of Atos. So that's where that link came in, and Gail Bower has been nothing but welcoming, and Angelica has been nothing but welcoming. And the whole team there has been very, very supportive.
Adele Fornarino:I wanted to love competing, but I didn't for a little bit there, and then I refound some of that enjoyment through through competition. And now now I absolutely love it. But if I if I wanted to be miserable, I'd be miserable and rich, and I'd be working a desk job. If that's my aim in life was to just be miserable, then I wouldn't be doing jiu jitsu.
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Adele Fornarino:Crazy. So, So, bit of a slow start morning, which is it's nice. It's nice once, especially after spending a lot of weekends just pinging all over the place. It's good to have a slow start, nice, like, nice coffee, all that kind of stuff.
Diogo Correa:I hear you. I hear you. Where where you at? Where you at now?
Adele Fornarino:Melbourne? Not today. I'm staying, I'm staying in the Hawthorne area, which is nice.
Diogo Correa:Gotcha. I've got these glasses on. The the viewers probably never seen me with glasses, and that's because I got this look at this shiner.
Adele Fornarino:Oh, beautiful. You see that?
Diogo Correa:You look like a lighter. Look at this. Man. That's
Adele Fornarino:a good one.
Diogo Correa:I look like a badass.
Adele Fornarino:You do. You do. Holy shit. How'd you get that?
Diogo Correa:Oh, we were training in in training, actually. I got copped one of those accidental head butts. You know, those are those are always fun. Like
Adele Fornarino:then the ice socket.
Diogo Correa:Yeah. He he he, like, it hit me up here, and then it bruised there. And now it just looks like I love Black Sabbath. You know what I mean? People make good money for
Adele Fornarino:that kind of makeup. Let me tell you. He could make good money for an eye that looks like
Diogo Correa:that. Oh, it's so good. So I don't know I don't know how long it heals. Do you know how how long would a black eye take to heal?
Adele Fornarino:I don't know. It depends, mate. Like, I've had friends that have just been sitting on black eyes for for weeks, but it should it should be gone within, like, a week or so.
Diogo Correa:Don't hit me with weeks, Adele.
Adele Fornarino:It'll it'll fade out. It'll fade, but, like, you can't tell. When you're wearing the glasses, you can't tell at all. Unless, like, you're telling me you look at it, you
Diogo Correa:can't really
Adele Fornarino:see it.
Diogo Correa:Have you got
Adele Fornarino:My face doesn't really bruise that much, to be honest. I've had some, like, decent elbows and knees and, you know, you name it. It's landed in my eyes, so and I'm just, like, my eyes don't bruise, but I have had I have gotten decent cauliflower before.
Diogo Correa:Have you have you hit cauliflower?
Adele Fornarino:Oh, yeah. 100%. I had surgery on on this year because because my mum wasn't happy. I was about 16 years old, and it was just from a from a from a straight elbow. Somebody was trying to pass guard.
Adele Fornarino:It was a straight elbow, and it just clipped me right in the the side of the head. My ear puffed up. It was it closed up all the way kind of so that, like, my actual ear hole was decently closed over, so I couldn't even hear that well. We drained it, drained it, drained it. It was still just puffing up, so, like, my mum insisted that we go to an ear nose, throat doctor and and had it, like, surgically taken out.
Adele Fornarino:So they they cut down the back, they peel it, they take out like the hematoma that sits in the ear, they stitch it back up, so they do like 5 stitches down the back, And they did, 2 stitches, like, through and through to kind of hold the the skin to the cartilage so it doesn't fill up again.
Diogo Correa:Right.
Adele Fornarino:So this one got a little bit mangled. This one, surprisingly, has held up okay. You can't see, but if you feel it, it's, like, it's slightly thicker than what an ear should probably be.
Diogo Correa:Due to an elbow, not like wrestling or or, like, squashing your ear to some someone just elbowed you.
Adele Fornarino:It was it was in a jiu jitsu. It's, like, it was in jiu jitsu training. It was just a straight elbow. Somebody was was trying to kind of pull my head off to the side, but they were using that elbow to pull my head, and it just came with a little bit of a little bit of pace to my ear, and it just it happens sometimes.
Diogo Correa:Yeah. No. Definitely. Accidental head butts, knees, elbows, I guess, is is part of the game. But you've never been I've been cut once.
Diogo Correa:I was cut about 3 months ago. I was I was actually there was another headbutt. Seems like we got a lot of accidental head butts in it. It was literally you're gonna split this down.
Adele Fornarino:I had, like, a a team of girls versus another team of girls, so we kind of just rotate through each of us, and I was one of the first that was up. And I had I won my first match and went straight to the one, and I had a a straight ankle lock. And when I went to go readjust, I kind of sat my body up, and she kicked her leg forward, and we happened to be, like, right on the boundary of the mat. And my hands were, like, locked onto this ankle, so I was falling forward, and I couldn't pull my hands out because I was stuck, and I kind of saw the ground getting closer and closer to my face, and I'm like, oh, I'd rather land on my chin than land on my teeth than my nose, so I looked up and I landed on my chin and then I thought I was fine, but a friend of mine that was on the side on the boundary was like, oh, careful of all the blood. I'm like, what do you mean?
Adele Fornarino:And then I started feeling around and I realized that I'd slid over my chin, which was, you know, a little bit a little bit traumatic. But I went out, the the medic kind of did some paper stitches on it, and then they sent me out back out again for the next couple of rounds, and I ended up winning the next few rounds and then had to fly home from from Wales to come home and then ended up getting stitches in.
Diogo Correa:Mate, you're a you're a savage, A. Well, I wanna talk about the last couple comps that you've you've won, the belt you retained, the fast submission that you got in w w n o. And, but in recovery, like, how what do you do for recovery? Like because I've I've got this black eye. I've had cuts and that, and I don't really know.
Diogo Correa:Like, sometimes my body's just continuously aching, and I'm trying to go to the gym and then do do jujitsu at the same time. So, like, what's your recovery process? Because you went from WNO to then defending a title at Grapplefest, and then you've you know, you came back, done some stitches, like and what was your process of getting back on the mat?
Adele Fornarino:For me, like, I I started jujitsu when I was very young. So the actual kind of wear and tear on my body like, I wanna say I'm used to, but it's one of those things where it's like, I'm I wake up in the morning sore here and there, so whether that's like, I'll stretch it out or do some active recovery stuff to make sure that it's somewhat awake before I get on the mats and actually do the hard training. Like, I will I will try and stay proactive on that. I make sure that I take, like, Sundays off for me. Sundays are, like, purely an active recovery day, so the most I'll do is go for a walk, just to kind of rest my body.
Adele Fornarino:I went through a period of doing a lot of, like, ice baths and saunas, when I was actually in Perth because I was I was in Perth for a little bit.
Diogo Correa:Yeah.
Adele Fornarino:But since I've come back here, I I'm now looking to see if I can, convert a chest freezer into an ice bath so I can get back into that and and start doing that a little bit more more frequently. But, I feel like my my body is just so used to it. The main thing that gets me right now at the moment is is the travel. It's all the the difference in time zones, specifically Europe, is a is a tough one to to come to and from. That that takes me a week or so to really be able to bounce back into gear.
Diogo Correa:Do you think IcePass actually help? Or is it like is it this, like, Joe Rogan effect fad well, not Joe Rogan. What's that guy, Wim Hof effect? Because I feel like everyone is doing ice baths at the minute. Like, at one point, it was sauna, which I loved.
Diogo Correa:I I love, like, warm. Now everyone's doing ice bath, and I I heard it really helps, like, you're but you're putting, what, you're putting your body into a sort of stress state, and then you hop out and you feel this euphoria because your body was in this stress state and then it hops out. But do you do you reckon it actually helps?
Adele Fornarino:I'm a research kind of person. Like, if if there's not a lot of research on it and there's not there's no, like, definitive answer saying, like, yes, it does this, then it's I don't think it does as much as people think it does. I don't think it has a massive effect on actual, like, physical recovery, but if it helps people mentally, I think it, people get out of ice baths feeling more awake or feeling more motivated and things like that. If that's the impact it has on you, then then that's great for me. I absolutely hate cold water, and if those 3 minutes in an ice bath are the hardest part of my day, then everything else is easy in comparison.
Adele Fornarino:Yeah. No. Definitely. So that that would that would be the effect it had on me. It was if I can do this, everything else is easy in comparison.
Diogo Correa:I do I do hear, like, it's great effect. Maybe it's it's just me. Maybe I hate the cold, and I'm, like, trying to find every bit of anyone that says it's bash for you. And I'm, like, let me try and go with this. Right.
Diogo Correa:It
Adele Fornarino:doesn't work right now.
Diogo Correa:Yeah. But, yeah, overall, I do I do hear that it's it's quite it's quite good. And I guess ice on on the muscle can't can't really hurt, but sauna, I love a sauna. Right? Let me in sauna.
Diogo Correa:I had to cut for that, little comp I did, and I was like, just pop me in a sauna. Let me just, like, shoot. Well, I went in there with, with, which isn't probably isn't that great. Like, sometimes I do really silly stupid things a day. Like, I went in there.
Diogo Correa:It was a steam room at at the gym. And then I went in there. They all these guys have all their shirts off, right, and they're in there for a small amount of time. I went in there with full jumper
Adele Fornarino:Jesus. Full trackies, and I was
Diogo Correa:like, I'm cutting weight, so I'll just go in and do this. Probably could've passed out, hit my head, and died.
Adele Fornarino:Tell me you had somebody at least monitoring you or keeping an eye on you or something.
Diogo Correa:I had AirPods on, and I was watching your match.
Adele Fornarino:Okay. Lovely. At least some at least you're doing something productive.
Diogo Correa:Let's go. Have you have you done much white cut? Like, what's what's your process there?
Adele Fornarino:I I do a little bit of white cutting here and there. Like, for for me, ADCC specifically, 55 is a really easy division for me to get to. Like, 55 is sitting kind of a kilo under what I naturally walk around at, so I'm like a 56, 57 like naturally walking around at about that, so 55 is quite easy. But I did do light feather at the start of last year, in the gi, which is I want to say my body weight had to be something like 51 point 9 or so, and that was that was not comfortable to get down to whatsoever. That was a lot of dieting, a lot of being very, very strict with intake, and then towards the back end of it, it it was manipulating water and sodium and all that kind of stuff.
Adele Fornarino:But, I did it under the watchful eye of a guy called, Jordan. He he runs an Instagram called, the flight dietitian.
Diogo Correa:Okay. Yeah.
Adele Fornarino:So he works with guys like, Volk, for instance. He works with Volk. He works with Easy, Adesanya, he works with Craig Jones. So he works with he knows the he knows how best to manipulate those last, couple of kilos, but just good diet in general.
Diogo Correa:And manipulation of water, what do you mean what do you mean by that?
Adele Fornarino:So, like, your body holds a, kind of baseline level of of water for just kind of basic function. You know, your your your body is a large percentage of water, and when you get to the the last couple of days, you want to flush out any water that's not like that's not a necessity for you, because you can quite easily drop 1, 2, 3, sometimes 4, 5, 6 kilos just in sweating out water. When you get to like the kind of higher stage of things, you end up sweating out more water, which can get more dangerous because it's it's dehydrating your body. Your body can't do the functions that it wants to do, but if we're talking like 1 or 2 kilos of just sweating out water that you don't need, generally, the effects are, like, your body leans out a little bit, like, your skin gets a bit tighter, all that kind of stuff. But it's it's kind of an easy way to drop weight rather than just flat out dieting.
Diogo Correa:So Ilija Toparito from the UFC, his last fight when he was, because he says that the day before his weight cutting, he before he steps on a scale, he likes to have 500 mils of wine, and that dehydrates his body. So he's happy on the day before cutting, so the his mood is is just cheerful around his team. And then when he wakes up, his body's dehydrated, and he's ready to hop on this scale. What's your thoughts on that?
Adele Fornarino:If it if it helps him and it makes him feel better because going through the weight cutting process is something that's not enjoyable, especially those last few days can be quite uncomfortable, and if he's doing something that works for him and makes him feel happy, it's something that he's looking forward to and he can find those little wins, then I think if it's working for him, then it's working for him. For me, it's, when you get to those last couple of days, it turns into the volume battle of, like, how you can get the most amount of calories in, the least amount of volume, because it turns into like what the actual physical weight is in your stomach. So sometimes I really like those last couple of days because I can have like high calorie foods without, like instead of eating a bunch of vegetables, I'm eating more like calorie dense foods that just weigh less, if that makes sense. So if he's doing something that that he's enjoying, that that's something he can look forward to in a really uncomfortable period of time, then all power to him.
Diogo Correa:What's your go to just before, like, you're stepping on a scale, like or actually, what's what's your go to meal after a comp?
Adele Fornarino:Oh, after a comp. After a comp, I'm like for me before a comp, I'm saving all these these recipe videos, and I'm like, 'I want this burger and I want this', but then after a comp, because of all the adrenaline dump and all that, I'm just not hungry whatsoever, but if I was to eat it, it'd definitely be like an American style burger. Burger and chips.
Diogo Correa:Burger and chips. I I love chicken wings. I like chicken wings. I like those
Adele Fornarino:too. They're good.
Diogo Correa:Hit me with kilos of chicken wings. But, yeah, it it it I'm similar in a in a sense that if I'm at the gym or if I'm training or doing anything, I I don't really like to eat after a day.
Adele Fornarino:Yeah. I've always been, like, post like, the first couple of hours after competing, I don't want to look at food, I don't want to touch food, and then, you know, a few hours after that, then I start getting a little bit more hungry, and then a few hours after that, I'm happy to eat.
Diogo Correa:Gotcha. I got I got a little question here, because, it popped up on my feed, and I and having you, you know, you're way like, very much a high level athlete, especially in Australia, and, you know, around the world. But in Australia, probably, to me, one of the best female that in Australia right now. And I saw this on Bernardo's page, and he said it was something that went viral on his Facebook group. And it's just a question to all black belts.
Diogo Correa:How old were you when you started, and how old were you when you got your black belt?
Adele Fornarino:Right. I was 10:10 years old when I started, around about that mark. And I was, oh, 20, 22. I was 20 I was either 22 or 23. Now now you got me thinking.
Adele Fornarino:I wanna say I was 23 because I've had it for a year and a bit. So I wanna say I was, like, 23 when I got my 22 or 23 when I got my black belt. 1 of the 2 of those.
Diogo Correa:Was that your favorite belt to get?
Adele Fornarino:I think like, yes. I it's kind of the where everything leads. It's what you
Diogo Correa:Printessential there.
Adele Fornarino:Where all the where all the the years years years kind of lead up to. But next to that, probably my my blue belt was was a really enjoyable belt to get. For me, I went, I I got some in my junior belt, so I got up to, I think, something like orange as as a as a junior belt. And then I went back to white belt so I could compete with the adults.
Diogo Correa:Mhmm.
Adele Fornarino:And so I went kind of white, then yellow, then orange, and back to white, then to blue.
Diogo Correa:Were you one of the purple belts that miss warm ups?
Adele Fornarino:Yeah. A 100%. A 100%. I lived in a gym, though, so I went from, like, coaching a class to then being in the next class and just kind of, like, getting water and getting change, and then I'm like, okay. It's tech time.
Adele Fornarino:I guess I missed the warm up today. Whoops. Notorious sort of thing.
Diogo Correa:Notorious, purple world thing, like, to do. Did your parents push you into not push you, but did they sign you up for Brazilian jujitsu and get you, like, towards the sport? And, like, what was what was your motivation throughout those teens to continue doing Brazilian jiu jitsu? Because me, I I have a kid, and I definitely I wanna open up a gym. I definitely know that I want him to do the sport.
Diogo Correa:I don't wanna force him into the sport. So what was that nurture from a kid into your teens in the sport like?
Adele Fornarino:So for me, none of my parents or nobody in my family ever did martial arts. I actually started doing, like, more kind of classic sports. I did tennis for a little bit. I did, AFL for a little bit, I did soccer for a little bit. Pretty much anything my older brother did, I then wanted to do.
Adele Fornarino:So, you know, if he was doing soccer, I was doing soccer. But around about the time I was like 9 or 10, I decided that when I grow up, I wanted to be a police officer. I made that executive decision, the the mature 10 year old I was. And I I literally just did a Google search in what's the closest martial art place to where I was living at the time and because I I thought martial arts would be very helpful for, you know, when I had my career as a police officer. I picked the closest place.
Adele Fornarino:It happened to be doing Brazilian jiu jitsu, the coach that I had at the time, so when I walked into the gym, the coach was was a really lovely guy. His name is David Christopher. He was just really great with kids, really good environment, lots of fun games, lots of, very engaging activities that we did, and I just kind of fell in love with it. At the time I was doing soccer and jiu jitsu kind of hand in hand, so 1 night was soccer, 1 night was jujitsu, and I just kind of progressively got more and more obsessed with it. Like, I was the only girl in class and I was really motivated to to get better than all the boys in the class and kind of beat them up a little bit.
Adele Fornarino:And, over time I I started doing soccer a lot less and then I just started going head first into jiu jitsu. But my parents never they they never forced me to do it. They never, you know, made any ultimatums for me. They just whatever I wanted to do, they encouraged me and, drove me there. And mom would take me to all the competitions, and they just let me pursue my passion kind of as I as I wanted to.
Diogo Correa:And when did they go, you know what? Like, wow. Like, Adele's pretty pretty good at this. Like, we definitely should, you know, steer her in this sport. Was that because you did you win worlds as a blue belt?
Adele Fornarino:I did when I was 16 years old, and I think, like, to what you're saying, I think that that was a tipping point. I won a a local competition that got me a ticket to travel through to LA.
Diogo Correa:Yeah. So
Adele Fornarino:I won something local. They they gave me the funds to be able to to go to LA and compete at Worlds for the first time. I think that that was very eye opening, like going to the Pyramid, going to to IBJJF Worlds as a juvenile, seeing how many people were there, seeing how big the event was, seeing how professionally it was run as well, just like it was very, very eye opening. And I think for me and my mom at the time, we just kind of we were in awe of how how big the sport was. And then I competed there, I won there, was obviously very excited and very happy, and then made the decision of, no.
Adele Fornarino:I wanna do that again and then again and then again and then again.
Diogo Correa:At that point, it's like looking at my child, and they've, you know, gone at their level that they're at to the pinnacle of the sport. I'm I'm sure as, like, parents, that that would have been a super proud moment.
Adele Fornarino:There's this really nice photo of, like, me and mum hugging at the very end, and it's, like, one of my favorite photos of just how emotional I was and how emotional she was and how proud she was looking. My dad unfortunately couldn't come, he was holding down the floor back at home. They were they were very very excited for me for sure.
Diogo Correa:Coming into competition for any anyone listening that wants to, you know, pursue as an athlete in the sport? What's your advice to them?
Adele Fornarino:If you're coming into it from like, if you're just starting in competitions, my advice would be just register. Like that is the hardest thing. That is the hardest part about competing. It's having the not even the motivation, but the, I would say like letting go of the anxiety and the fear and and just pulling the trigger on actually getting in the registration because there's no there's no real downside to it. It's it's like any skill, it's a practice skill, getting out there and competing and getting on the stage and, dealing with the referees and the weigh in and all those like little things.
Adele Fornarino:It's all a practice skill. It's not necessarily the same as rolling on the training mats or, you know, training at other gyms' open mats, it's all very different. So my best piece of advice would be just pull the trigger on it, just just do it because pulling the trigger on getting the registration is the hardest part. Capture competition is it is what it is.
Diogo Correa:Talking about competition, let's review your fastest submission in w a WNO history and also if we had the flow grappling, which is insane. Like, when you when you got this submission, were you like what was your thoughts just running through, at the end before we go through the thoughts during the match?
Adele Fornarino:So for me, the the whole the whole match was we were very specific on how we did the lead up to this because we had 2 weeks. I say we because it's not it's not all just coming from me. I have a a team of people behind me that that help me, whether that be on the mental side of things, whether that be on, what I'm specifically working on when we're talking about training sessions, whether that be, strategy, you know, in the weights room, whatever it's going to be. I have a whole team of people that are very supportive, and help me to to go out there in the best possible shape that I that I can be in. So a lot of research went into in the in the 2 weeks we were given because it was I got this match because, somebody had had pulled out of this match due to injury.
Adele Fornarino:We straight away went into, let's do research. Let's make sure that we we understand what the most likely outcomes are gonna be in this match. So lots and lots of research and then talking about some some good strategies we could start to pull off in in the match, and that's what led to to the submission. I think some people kind of watch the match and go, oh, it was a a lucky grab. And and if that's the the opinion they have, that's totally fine.
Adele Fornarino:But for me, it was that's what a lot of very specific preparation looks like, and that's what led to to me being able to to get the submission that I did.
Diogo Correa:Yeah. I didn't think it was a lucky grab at all. And so you were last minute, coming into this match. So they you're replacing who?
Adele Fornarino:Fionn Davies.
Diogo Correa:Got you.
Adele Fornarino:So this was supposed to be a title match for the 125 who's number 1 belt. So Fion currently holds the 125 belt, and Tubby, Amanda Alagun was gonna was gonna fight Fion for that belt, and then, Fion, got injured. So I got the call up 2 weeks before this match saying, hey, do you want to step in so that Tubby still has a match? And I said absolutely, like, where do I sign? Send me over.
Adele Fornarino:But, yeah, 2 weeks notice.
Diogo Correa:Dude, you stepped in 2 weeks notice, and you finished it in seconds. So good. Let's so let's review the match here. So it starts so you start off dapping up and just run us through what you thought
Adele Fornarino:you might that, that so for jujitsu, this is like a guard pull, so playing on my butt just allows me to to get access to my legs so I can kind of manage distance and stop it from essentially crushing me. And as she came down, I tried to get a grab on her head, but she's she's very savvy to it. So I got underneath, then I used my legs to elevate her body up so I could get her heel, rested onto my ribs. So because it was sitting on my ribs and I was holding it nice and tight, I could get, like, a little bit of rotational force that tricks through through her knee and her ankle, and and that's what got me the submission.
Diogo Correa:So good. So right there, Did you know did you know you had it when at this point here?
Adele Fornarino:Yep. As soon as her heels so you can see that, like her toes are sitting in my armpit and her heels are sitting at my rib. And if I kind of make an uppercut motion, the heel starts to turn and and that torque can sometimes run through the knee. And if not the knee, then it starts to run through, like, the shin and the ankle. Yeah.
Adele Fornarino:And then I just kept rotating with it to to keep it nice and tight and just keep applying that pressure. And then we ended up kind of on the ground, and that's when when I could put a full, like, bridge into it with my hips. And then at at this point, I knew that that it was that it was on and it was tight and that she wouldn't be able to to pull her foot out.
Diogo Correa:Wow. Dude, that's so, so good. And what what was your thoughts there? At, like, did you think she was injured? Did you think, like, you were you just in your own world?
Diogo Correa:Like, what's what's the process when you've you've coming in 2 weeks notice to someone who's about to go in to get the title, essentially. She that's what she was trying to do, and you come in against the number one contender and just finish her off that quick and that emphatically.
Adele Fornarino:I was I was definitely excited, but, I think at that point, as soon as I got the submission, just because I heard some of the sounds that that her knee and her ankle were making, I was I was just concerned whether whether she was okay. But when I saw her moving her knee, I was just happy to see that her knee was was moving okay. And I knew that she'd be, like, really, really tough to submit. Like, Tubby is a is an excellent competitor. She's been around for a very long time.
Adele Fornarino:She she has some, like, massive wins under her belt, and she's notoriously hard to submit. I don't think she'd been submitted in 2 years prior to this match. I knew it
Diogo Correa:hadn't been submitted.
Adele Fornarino:Gonna be really tough to submit. I knew that she's she's just a tough competitor in general, and I've I've been watching her for a very long time. So, I was definitely, happy to have gotten the win, but also wanted to make sure she wasn't injured and that she could get onto the training mats the next day and and that, you know, she was she would get straight back into her competition career as well.
Diogo Correa:And what what was the post, match analysis from from you and your team? I always wonder, like, how the teams, you know, in a backroom, like, once everything's died down, maybe at dinner or something, what the discussion is post, a match like that and getting the victory?
Adele Fornarino:We definitely went straight into, analyzing everything. I think the more data we get, the better it is, and and we use every opportunity to gather as much data as we can. I think the the main talking points for it were, some things that I could work on is just like maintaining distance a little bit more and preventing her from getting any kind of wrist grips on me. And we were happy at the fact that I could that we talked about a game plan. I could stick to the game plan quite comfortably.
Adele Fornarino:Even though it was kind of not a lot of mat time to analyse, it was all the other things around that, like what we did the day before, was I feeling good getting onto the mat, did we do a good warm up, was the warm up what we needed, was the diet what we needed, so for that match I feel like I ate slightly too close to actually getting out then, so that's something that that we're now going to adjust a little bit.
Diogo Correa:So you so you do think you do think there are some things even in that performance that you did wrong?
Adele Fornarino:There's there's always things to improve on. There's always adjustments to be made. I think that when you when you get to the the kind of when you get to high level competition, there's always things you can do better, there's always things you can adjust, and sometimes it's not even the performance, it's the other things surrounding the performance. It's the diet, it's the mentality, it's the, this song, you know, that I had on my pre comp playlist was making me feel a certain way, so I gotta get rid of it and change it to this song. Sometimes it's just those those little things.
Diogo Correa:Did you know something that's really interesting that I don't think, you know, I've I've seen a a lot of people review tape, but I've never really discussed things that someone believes that they did incorrectly in the match. Like, that that will be pretty cool. What like, in the because to me, it's, like, quite a flawless performance. What would you say here was incorrect that you could have done better?
Adele Fornarino:I think, I thought that was a little bit more. So when she came down, specifically that little moment where to come up and and work my my head wrap. So as she falls, I didn't commit as much as I would have wanted to to this position.
Diogo Correa:So
Adele Fornarino:she pulled it out straight away just because I wasn't I didn't come underneath and actually cut her chin because I was I was, not kind of committing to that exchange. From here, like even the fact that she's grabbing the back of my head, I could have dealt with that a little bit earlier so I could get better elevation. So her left hand is sitting at the back of my head, I could have dealt with that with my free hand. Yes, things like that I could have addressed earlier. With the actual finish, to be honest, I'm happy with the finishing mechanics of when we went belly down and I used my hips.
Adele Fornarino:It's just like some of the little things in the lead up that that I can that I'm definitely, putting more more time in on the mats to just make sure that I'm addressing those things. Because even though they didn't cause me any issues in this particular match, I wanna prevent them from causing me any issues in in matches down the line.
Diogo Correa:Gotcha. And is do you wanna go for the title, who's number 1?
Adele Fornarino:A 100%. I think I'm in a really good shot to to have, got the 125 title against beyond. But not only that, like, I wanna have a good shot at the 115 title. That title's been super, like, vacant for a while. Well, not even vacant.
Adele Fornarino:The, it hasn't been fought for for about 2 years at this point. So, a competitor called Maiza Bastos, she's holding it at the moment, and I'm I'm trying to trying to get a shot at that title match, but it's it's, it's tough to to motivate her to wanna actually take the match. For whatever reason, she she seems to to not want the match, and she's taken other matches elsewhere, but she's holding the belt, and I think that she needs to fight for the belt. And if she doesn't wanna fight for the belt, I think it's only fair that she she vacates it and and lets, other competitors fight for it. Because right now, it's a very, very quiet division and a very, very quiet belt, and I think that we can definitely bring some life back into the the one fifteen division.
Diogo Correa:Why would you prefer that one than the the one that you just won, this division?
Adele Fornarino:Both. I'm I'm definitely very motivated to to wanna fight in both divisions. The You
Diogo Correa:wanna be a double champ, Adele. Call it out. You wanna be a double champ.
Adele Fornarino:A 100%. I wanna be
Diogo Correa:Let's go.
Adele Fornarino:I'm trying to think this has been another female double champ. I definitely could be wrong. There definitely could be, a female double champ. I know that there's there's been a few male double champs. I know that Pato holds holds 2 of the titles at the moment after Batfury's number 1.
Adele Fornarino:He got his 2nd title.
Diogo Correa:Yeah.
Adele Fornarino:Yeah. It was a phenomenal match. Excellent match. But I definitely wanna be a double champ. Like, I think that I can be competitive in both of those divisions.
Adele Fornarino:I think that I'm very my my game, my style works very well in both of those divisions. I think it's just motivating the guys that are actually holding the belts to fight for the belts. I think that's the that's now becoming the tricky part.
Diogo Correa:Yeah. So you think both women are scared?
Adele Fornarino:I don't think Fionn's scared. I think she's motivated to hit as many competitions as she can. I think that Maesa needs to needs to get back on the Who's number 1 match is what I think. I think she's she hasn't fought on on that platform for 2 years. She's she's been active in the gi and she's just hit a recently, she just competed at 1.
Adele Fornarino:She actually competed against somebody I've competed against before that that I managed to to hit a pretty fast submission on the person she she got a decision with on. So I I think that that she needs to get back on the Who's Number 1 stage and and defend that belt. But if she's not willing to defend the belt, that's fine, But vacate it in and give it to people that that actually that'll be willing to consistently fight for it.
Diogo Correa:How long was the time period between who's number 1 and Grapplefest?
Adele Fornarino:Something along the lines of 3 weeks.
Diogo Correa:So 3 weeks, you went so you got a 2 week notice
Adele Fornarino:Mhmm.
Diogo Correa:For who's number 1, and then you went in there absolutely destroyed. And then 3 weeks later, you come and retain your belt at Grapplefest.
Adele Fornarino:It was a very fast turnaround. Yeah. It was it was It's such a
Diogo Correa:it was It's such a fun
Adele Fornarino:Yeah. The the Noose number 1 wasn't exactly planned. It just it just happened. Mhmm. But I I had the GranvilleFest, title match planned for for a bit of time, so I was I was always excited to be competing on the Gravelfest.
Adele Fornarino:It's a really, really fun event.
Diogo Correa:I didn't have, the how long have you held the title there?
Adele Fornarino:That is a very good question. It would be somewhere along the lines of about a year. Something like that is is that's just the guess off the top of my head. It'd be somewhere around though though that time frame.
Diogo Correa:Gotcha. And, yes, so you're flying in and out of these comps and just representing, like, Australia, like, in in the best way, which is amazing to see. Like, everyone that, you know, I train with, I was saying that you're coming on the podcast. They were super excited, and it's just good to see that a female's out there and representing the sport well. You know?
Diogo Correa:Craig Jones represents for Australia, but he represents in a unique way. You know?
Adele Fornarino:He's very unique, but he's fighting his own way right now.
Diogo Correa:I saw a image of his fight at UFC fight pass and then some random kid, like, pointed at him and he he was like, nose beers after Nose beers after? Nose beers after. Nose beers after.
Adele Fornarino:And this kid's, like, 12 years old. This kid should not know what an orange bear is. It's terrible. It's terrible.
Diogo Correa:It's outright.
Adele Fornarino:There's people that are that are actively trying to, like, go out and be role models for the kids, and then there's there's Craig Jones who's just doing his own thing.
Diogo Correa:What are some other, Aussie Aussie grapplers that you think are are really good and can excel at the elite high level?
Adele Fornarino:Well, like, Isaac Michel is is already out there doing it. I think he's a phenomenal competitor. I got to watch him at at ADCC Trials. I think he's he's doing amazing things on the international scene, he he did very well. I think it was Iga that he did, he did very well at that.
Adele Fornarino:There's a lot of just unknown talent out there that that I'm guessing will sneak onto the scene. You know, Rhys Allen, who actually has a judo background, who's now come onto the jiu jitsu scene in a very big way, came second at trials against Kenta. And he he's a purple belt, so he's he may have gotten his brown belt recently, don't quote me on that. But, he's coming onto the scene in a big way and then he's doing some really cool things. And then there's there's obviously all the all the local talents coming through, like Nadia Franklin, who I've had the privilege of having a few matches with, but she did very well in the European ADCC trials, but unfortunately, got injured in in a in a very weird way.
Adele Fornarino:Wasn't in a submission. It was just in a really weird, like, guard passing position, but, you know, she she's gonna come back for the trials and and she's doing some awesome things. So we we have a lot of talent. We have a lot of really good competitors that represent Australia very well on the international scene, and are very competitive with with some of the the American talent and the Brazilian talent. You know, I don't want to leave out people like, Levi Jones who just recently competed at, I think it was at, ADXC.
Adele Fornarino:I think he competed at, and he had a a a great performance with Jonathan Gracie, which was a really cool match. But we have a lot of guys out there.
Diogo Correa:ADXC was just it it was so hard to, to get a stream for over here in Australia, but they they had some really cool matches on there. It was They did. Yeah. I wanted I wanted to yeah. If you got a some type of link, I don't I could I could
Adele Fornarino:I'm not buying my link.
Diogo Correa:So wait. And do you do you follow, other sports, like, what happened with Ngannou and Joshua yesterday in in boxing?
Adele Fornarino:I like, I saw it all comes up on my Instagram, but I don't actually sit there and watch much boxing. I watch a little bit of UFC, like, I I watch the guys that I like. Like, I watch like Volkonoski.
Diogo Correa:Yeah.
Adele Fornarino:I watch Ridley Dayne because, I actually got the privilege of meeting her and training with her at Atos, so I really like to watch her matches. Oh, she's an absolute savage man, she goes out there every time and gives it everything, but also like it's a performance. She she makes it interesting for everybody. Yeah. To be honest, like, I I got into tennis.
Adele Fornarino:I really enjoy watching tennis.
Diogo Correa:Okay. Right? Nice. Nice.
Adele Fornarino:I I what?
Diogo Correa:Last time I played tennis, I rolled my ankle and face planted into the net. That's that was my experience of this sport. Do you do you try and play? Do you try and, get out there and have a little hit button?
Adele Fornarino:I'm terrible at it. So so my partner, she actually used to play quite, like, high up tennis.
Diogo Correa:Yeah.
Adele Fornarino:So every now and then, we'll play together. So she started jiu jitsu, I wanna say that, 2 a bit years ago. So on the jiu jitsu mats, I'll I'll kind of I'll give her trouble, but then we get to the tennis courts and she is pelting ball balls at me, getting a little bit of payback for for me kinda kicking a butt on the jiu jitsu match. She'll she'll get paid back on the tennis mats on the tennis club.
Diogo Correa:More m I love it. I love it. And, just just before I let you go, thank you thank you for staying with us for so long as well. So here, you're training with dominance? Yes.
Diogo Correa:And then in America, you're, I guess, under Atos or you train with them when when you're over there when you can. Is that right?
Adele Fornarino:Correct. Yes.
Diogo Correa:And so what how how was that link? So, like, for Australian athletes looking to go and compete in America and they, you know, wanna find a team over there, and they wanna, you know, train with them or or whatever it is. How how did that link happen with you and Atos, and why Atos?
Adele Fornarino:So a a couple of things kinda led to it. I met Gavow when I was quite young. He came to Australia, and taught a seminar at dominance, funny enough, and I saw how kind of personable he was and what his character was like, and that made a big impact when I was young. But, when I was I want to say, I think it was my brown belt when I was leading into doing No Gi Worlds as a brown belt, I did a camp there. And just the the culture of the space and the high level competitors that were there, it was a very good lead up for me to to go compete at Worlds, and I did very well at Worlds and I ended up winning at Brown Boat World's No Gi.
Adele Fornarino:So that was a very fun experience, and I really connected with a lot of the the team there and a lot of the specifically the girls there. And then went went back to Australia. At the time, I was in Perth, so I was still kind of consistently training. And then I did the the gi season, and when I did gi season, I came back to America and and did a little bit of, like, shopping around to see what environment in America suited me best. Made some really lovely connections with a lot of lovely people, like got the privilege of training at some very high level gyms.
Adele Fornarino:But while I was training at these high level gyms, I kind of I went to San Diego just to pop my head into Atos, to say hello, and as soon as I pop my head through the doors, the team there, they were like, oh, how are you going? Like, what's going on? How you been? We really miss you.' Just that kind of environment where you felt very welcomed and very, like cared for and that these guys actually, they actually care how you're doing and and they actually want you in the space. I think that that was a big a big factor for me was the the actual cultural aspect of it.
Diogo Correa:Gotcha.
Adele Fornarino:And then every time I I come in and out of America quite a bit, so all of the my all of my major training camps, predominantly done out of out of Atos. So that's where that link came in. And Gabbao has been nothing but welcoming, and Angelica has been nothing but welcoming. And the whole team there has been very, very supportive. And that's kind of how that that relationship builds over time.
Adele Fornarino:And, and ATS have a have a great relationship with Dominance as well, which which makes things, you know, makes it more so a team, rather than everything feeling, like, really disconnected, which was nice.
Diogo Correa:Gotcha.
Adele Fornarino:But, yeah, for me for me, it's a big cultural thing. I do jujitsu because I genuinely enjoy doing jujitsu. Like, I I get enjoyment out of training, I get enjoyment out of competing. For a very long time, I didn't enjoy competing. I really struggled with it.
Adele Fornarino:I wanted to I wanted to love competing, but I didn't for a little bit there, and then I refound some of that enjoyment through competition. And now now I absolutely love it. But if I if I wanted to be miserable, I'd be miserable and rich and I'd be working a desk job. If that's if my aim in life was to just be miserable, then I wouldn't be doing jiu jitsu. I do jiu jitsu because I genuinely love jiu jitsu.
Diogo Correa:I hear you. And I love the how it's such a great community where, you know, you can speak to Galvan and, like, people, like, at that level that's done it in, you know, has held the ADCC title for, like, a long time. He's such a legend, and you can speak, like, I was with Danaher came down, and you can just go and speak with him. I've I was, like, get he's he's training Gordon and a lot of a lot of high level people, and and, just there in one of his, like, seminars just speaking to him, like, casually. I love how the sport has that community aspect to it, which is beautiful.
Diogo Correa:It's actually speaking on Donna Donna Hers' side side side quest question here, what's your thoughts on Helena?
Adele Fornarino:I think she's an amazing competitor. I think that for somebody that is like, she she's quite young, but she's she's very talented in the sport. She works incredibly hard. She's surrounded by a lot of a lot of knowledge, so she learns very quickly. I very, very briefly kind of said hello while she was at Grapplefest because she was at the same event that I was at.
Adele Fornarino:She had a very dominant performance at Grapplefest. I think she's she's an amazing competitor and has a very, very bright future ahead of
Diogo Correa:her. Gotcha. Gotcha. Thank you so much for the time. Any last things that you you'd like?
Diogo Correa:I definitely wanna have you on again. It was actually, you moved from Melbourne to Perth and then from Perth back to Melbourne, because I'm I'm heading over to Perth. I was gonna say I definitely wanna have you in future in person. I always really enjoy those those conversations. What was the move?
Diogo Correa:Like, why why move back to the cold and miserable city that is Melbourne? Shots fired from the sea I was
Adele Fornarino:gonna say it's so Sydney. I'm doing it at the moment. It's it's got to be like 30 degrees at least at the moment. You know, after this we're going to go down the road and get some acai because it's that hot. You know, that that once in a that once in a heatwave that we get here.
Adele Fornarino:So I moved to Paris in the last
Diogo Correa:3 hours, alright? It's gonna last 3 hours. I'm
Adele Fornarino:sorry. It's so strange. The the move to and from, so we moved to, Perth because my partner was studying dentistry there. She had 3 more years on her degree, so she was studying at UWA, so we went there. But I think it was one of the best things I could have done.
Adele Fornarino:I met some amazing people while I was there, some people that are still kind of within my team at the moment, so so Jacob Driscoll's out there, he he plays a big part in in making sure I'm I'm in the right mindset, I'm I have the right strategy. He plays a big role as somebody that's in my team, so, you know, I got to meet some new people and experience some different jiu jitsu while I was there, but we ended up moving back just because family is here and, you know, we like to be around family, and moving back to dominance obviously was a big part to play as well. I I was I started at dominance when I was 10. It's it's always been my my jiu jitsu home in Australia. The culture there is amazing that I have people that are that are like my family there, so moving back was was more so about, like, family and and a bit about training.
Diogo Correa:Gotcha. Gotcha. Awesome. No. That's that's, that's fair enough.
Diogo Correa:Nice and quick. That was, yep.
Adele Fornarino:It's not a it's not a deal. It's not a deal. It's a deal. Pardon me?
Diogo Correa:Have you have you got the belt there that you can show us?
Adele Fornarino:I do. Is it heavy you
Diogo Correa:want to damn. There's no you did.
Adele Fornarino:Okay. The metal is quite, like, thick on it, so it actually is heavy. It's it's a pain in the butt to get through customs though.
Diogo Correa:Oh, really? Oh, no, Sunny.
Adele Fornarino:Well, I put it in my backpack, and when they scan it through, all they see is this big metal sheet on top. So they're like, okay, let me look in your bag, and I'm like and then they open it, and every single time, every time one of the guys from customs is like, oh, what's this for? I don't want to mess with you!' They make the same jokes every time.
Diogo Correa:Yeah. But at the first time, you're like, yeah. Fuck. Yeah. And, like, bye bye.
Diogo Correa:Like, you've gone through so many times, like, yep. That's right. That's right. That's my bill. No.
Diogo Correa:Bro, it's so sick. It's so good.
Adele Fornarino:Customs in America and they're, you know, when they're scanning you your passport, they go, oh, what are you doing in America? You know, they always ask you that, what are you what are you doing here? I go, I'm here to train jiu jitsu, and, like, 99% of the time, the person that's standing past me is like, oh, you do jiu jitsu? I do jiu jitsu. Oh, where are you training?
Adele Fornarino:Where are you going? I'm like, oh, well, I'm going here and I'm training here.' They're like, oh, that's really cool!' Or like, oh, how long have you been we always have this, like, back and forth conversation about jiu jitsu every time.
Diogo Correa:What's what's your actually, what's your thoughts on the explosion of jiu jitsu? Because it has, like back when you started, it wasn't as nowhere near as big as when it is now. Right?
Adele Fornarino:Yep. 100%. I think jiu jitsu is is progressively growing, especially with the different sets where it's a little bit more viewer friendly for people that don't train. I think we're drawing in a big audience of people that don't actually need to train jiu jitsu to to understand it or to to get enjoyment out of watching it. It's funny because we had we had, people from World Vision come by the doors the other day, you know, they're doing their door to door thing and they were asking, oh what do you do?
Adele Fornarino:I'm like, oh I do Jujitsu. They're like, oh, I love jiu jitsu. I watch a lot. I'm like, do you guys train? They're like, no, no, I just really love watching it.
Adele Fornarino:And I was like, oh, no. Like, people that watch it that don't actually train, it was was very surprising to me in Australia as well.
Diogo Correa:It's so good,
Adele Fornarino:It's blowing up, man. It's just like in America, it's always been big, but it's it's getting bigger just all the way across the world.
Diogo Correa:And it looks like ADCC is gonna be huge. Absolutely.
Adele Fornarino:Gonna be, like, the biggest studio event that that has ever existed.
Diogo Correa:Are you going to compete at ADCC?
Adele Fornarino:So I'm gonna do trials in Bangkok. So I did the I did the trials in Singapore. I had a clean run through the trials in Singapore. I got a submission, in in all of my matches, but the the way that the tickets work for the females is because there's only 8 competitors in each female division, every second trials gives us a ticket.
Diogo Correa:Right.
Adele Fornarino:So there there's 16 male competitors, and there's 8 female competitors. So for the males, every trial wins a ticket.
Diogo Correa:Yeah.
Adele Fornarino:For the females, every second trial. So the one in Bangkok is the one that actually wins, the female ticket. So I'm gonna be going over to Bangkok on 11th of May. That's when it is, and I'll be competing in that.
Diogo Correa:Massive. Legend, mate. Good luck for that one, and then hopefully, it will get you on in future as the future HCC champ. A 100
Adele Fornarino:A 100%, man. I feel it.
Diogo Correa:Let's go. Thank you so much, Adelpho and Irina. Anything that you'd like to leave them with?
Adele Fornarino:Oh, I just wanna say thanks thanks so much for having me, and, you know, it's it's been a pleasure to to be on the show and and just have a chat about all the all the jiu jitsu things. I obviously wanna wanna say a massive thank you to all all the people that support me and all all my sponsors. You know, I'm I'm a bit hyperfly today. Always always, always repping them, and they they got awesome gear in in the, in the business. All the guys at Domino's and Atos for always supporting me.
Adele Fornarino:All the guys at Bulletproof, Midnight City and at Blackmagic, just all those guys for for looking after me and and making sure I can do what I do. They're they've been endless supportive. But, but, yeah, massive thank you to them as well.
Diogo Correa:Awesome. Appreciate you, May. Speak soon. Thank you so much. Keep destroying.
Diogo Correa:Always. If you enjoyed this discussion, make sure to leave a 5 star review. We really appreciate it.
