Wrestling coach in US put on paid leave for calling Obama an ‘idiot’

WASHINGTON - An Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter has been put on paid leave from his job as a wrestling coach after he insulted President Obama’s intelligence and challenged him to a fight.

Jacob Volkmann said that he is under investigation by White Bear Lake High School, in Minnesota, where he had worked as a part-time assistant wrestling coach for three years, for the comments he made against Obama.

Volkmann had replied to a question put to him by a reporter during a New Year’s Day interview after he won a fight that he would like to fight Obama next.

“He’s not too bright. Someone’s got to knock some sense into that idiot,” Fox News quoted him as telling MMA Fighting.

The comment prompted a visit by the U.S. Secret Service after they received several calls accusing the fighter of threatening the president.

However, Volkmann said the comments were tongue-in-cheek.

“They didn’t like how I was representing the school. They said I was representing them bad because of what I said about the president and his policies,” he said.

Marisa Vette, the school district’s director of communications, confirmed that Volkmann is on paid leave, but did not say if his comments about President Obama sparked the investigation.

“We have an employee who is on leave and the district is investigating in accordance with the law,” Vette said.

In addition to being a UFC fighter and assistant wrestling coach, Volkmann is also a chiropractor, and he said his comments were about the president’s health care reform policies.

In a later interview, he backed off the “idiot comment”, and told the MMA Hour that he regretted having called Obama an idiot.

“I don’t think he’s an idiot, but I do think he’s making a lot of mistakes,” he said. (ANI)