Adele Fornarino has announced she’s pulling out of ADCC 2026, pointing to a series of grievances with how the organization has handled athlete safety, pay equity, and the competitive structure for women.
Her most pressing concern was ADCC’s delayed response in removing Izaak Michell from competition after an arrest warrant was issued for him:
I deeply disagree with some of the decisions that ADCC has made recently, in regards to them taking such a long time to make some very easy decisions in my opinion, like taking Izaak Michell out of the division as soon as a warrant was for his arrest.
It was a very easy, simple decision to make that could have made a very positive stance throughout the community, especially given what’s going on at the moment.
I think that they really lost that opportunity to have a very positive impact in our community.
She also addressed the pay gap between men’s and women’s divisions.
While supportive of the recent increase in men’s pay, she argued women deserve equal treatment:
I disagree with the fact that the women are paid half the amount of the men. The men’s pay went up, which is super exciting for them.
I’m very happy for them. I think that that’s absolutely warranted.
But on the same page, I think that the women deserve to be paid what the men deserve to be paid.
It’s not our fault that we have half the amount of competitors in the division.
Fornarino also pointed to ADCC quietly discontinuing both the women’s Absolute division and the women’s super fight, two categories that directly affected her personally:
They’ve kind of swept that under the rug and not really made any announcements or any statements on that.
There’s no female super fight, which for me means that I won the Absolute, I had my opportunity to get a super fight, and they’ve kind of taken that away from me, which is a bit disappointing.
Financially, she said the math simply doesn’t work in athletes’ favor:
It doesn’t make sense for me to spend two years prepping for a competition that doesn’t give any show money to the athletes that are putting a lot of time and energy and investing in themselves and the people around them to then maybe breaking even, maybe making a little bit of money if they completely win their division.
Fornarino has since shifted her focus to UFC BJJ, an organization she believes is more genuinely invested in women’s competition:
I truly believe that they are one of the only promotions that are, in their main events, putting four female matches on in one night.
They’re allowing the same opportunities for their females as they are for their males.
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