Ahead of her rematch with Alex Enriquez at UFC BJJ 7, Adele Fornarino spoke about the rise of women’s grappling and her role in pushing it forward.
In an interview with Ring The Belle MMA, Fornarino made it clear that her mission goes beyond competing:
We just want to keep pushing it.
I think that there’s so much talent there and so many people love watching women’s jiu-jitsu, love watching women’s sport in general.So my job is to be at the forefront and to push for that and just to kind of shut these guys up that are wanting to talk smack about it because like even if they’re talking smack, they’re talking smack because they’re scared to admit that they still watch it and they still enjoy it and we’re out here for everybody.
That same idea carried over into a viral moment involving Sean Strickland, where a photo of the two – featuring Fornarino wearing an “everybody watches women’s sports” shirt – circulated widely online:
He knows he loves women’s sports. He just needed a little bit of a push in the right direction.
Like I walk in, the first thing he says is: “I can’t wait to watch you compete.”
I know because he wants to watch, he wants to support.He puts on his tough guy mentality, but he’s a tough guy at heart and he wants to support the women.
Everybody does. That’s why it’s true.Everybody watches women’s sports. Everybody can talk about it.
Everybody can have their opinions, but at the end of the day, they’re watching.
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