Adele Fornarino has just been confirmed as the second woman in the lineup for CJI 2. She will most likely be coming in as the clear favorite given that she had the best performance of her career at ADCC 2024. Not only did she win gold in her own weight class at under 55kg but she also stormed to victory as the lightest competitor in the absolute division too. With 6 wins over the best female grapplers in the world over the course of one weekend, Fornarino cemented her place in the history books and more than earned the invite to the second Craig Jones Invitational.
This is a massive opportunity as well, as the four women in the bracket will be competing for the biggest prize in female Jiu-Jitsu history. With $100,000 on the line, Jones is probably going to be inundated with applications from many of the best competitors in the sport. The first invite was given to Helena Crevar and with just her and Fornarino confirmed so far, it’s clear that this going to be one of the toughest tournaments imaginable. It also presents an interesting scenario because Crevar and Fornarino haven’t faced each other yet, so there’s at least one brand new matchup that could happen already.
This is going to be an important part of the matchmaking for Craig Jones and Seth Belisle too, as there aren’t all that many matches left for Fornarino after her epic run last year. The most hotly-anticipated actually took place recently, when she faced Ffion Davies at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 11. That was an incredibly close match that some thought should have gone to Fornarino, but ultimately Davies won the split decision. That rematch is one that fans would be very eager to see as well, but it looks very unlikely that Davies would enter CJI 2 even though her UFC contract reportedly allows her to do so.
Craig Jones announced the news that Adele Fornarino would be competing at CJI 2 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
