There's no way Jacob Volkmann could have predicted the aftermath of his tongue-in-cheek call out of President Barack Obama after UFC 125, but the Minnesota lightweight knows one thing: he's gonna roll with it. Volkmann, whose post-fight interview with MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani has garnered more mainstream attention than perhaps any fight interview in years, told Helwani on "The MMA Hour" Monday that he doesn't regret his criticism of the president, even though it earned him a visit from the Secret Service. Well, mostly he has no regrets.
"I have an opinion and I have the right to say my opinion – and there's no regrets of what I said," Volkmann said. "The only regret I have is calling him an idiot. I don't think he's an idiot, but I do think he's making a lot of mistakes."
After defeating Antonio McKee in the opening bout at UFC 125 on Jan. 1, Helwani asked Volkmann whom he wants to fight next. After saying Clay Guida, Volkmann then said: "Actually, Obama. He's not too bright. ... His health care plan – someone's gotta knock some sense into that idiot. ... I'm a chiropractor, so I know the health care situation – but he's making it worse."
Apart from his fighting career, Volkmann is a doctor who runs his own chiropractic business in White Bear Lake, Minn.
His comments in the post-fight interview quickly spread around the Internet once the video was online. On Tuesday, Volkmann was teaching a wrestling class when the Secret Service came by to question him.
"He just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to D.C. to hurt the president," Volkmann said. "He said he was actually embarrassed to come in and question me. He saw the clip. He did a background on me. He knew I was no threat."
While most agree the whole thing turned rather ridiculous, Volkmann said he won't let the attention go to waste. He said he'll appear on the Fox Business network tomorrow, and a gag on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno has already gone viral.
"I never thought it would go this far," Volkmann said. "I thought maybe the president would hear about it. That's about it. Not on the news."
Though Volkmann, who said he voted for Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, said the exposure has brought some political hate mail his way, he plans to work the attention to his advantage.
"My manager (Monte Cox) was like, 'Keep it up,' so I'm going to roll with it some more," Volkmann said. "I got a lot of e-mails (from people) saying they had never seen fighting before, and now they're interested in it because of what I said."
Editor's note: Watch Volkmann's interview after UFC 125 below.
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