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Mike Winkeljohn is trying to justify making gyms reopen with completely inaccurate social media posts.
One of the top MMA coaches in Mike Winkeljohn has been taking to social media recently, pushing hard for businesses to reopen. The high-profile coach recently compared Adolf Hitler to the current lockdowns put to prevent the spread of a pandemic. To make things worse, pretty much everything about the post is just completely inaccurate.
“Think about what this all time peice [sic] of crap has to say,” Winkeljohn wrote on Instagram. He ended with the hashtag “open” as he pushes for his business to be allowed to restart again.
Not only did Winkeljohn compare dealing with a pandemic to Nazi Germany, he used fake quotes that Adolf Hitler himself never said to make his point. That man in the photo? Well, that isn’t even Hitler either. It’s former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who was photoshopped with a mustache.
It’s an old meme from several years ago, likely made to take shots at Cameron’s time in office, but it’s somehow recirculating now and being repurposed by a high-profile MMA coach to talk about the world’s current situation during a pandemic.
Apart from this, Winkeljohn has also been reposing conspiracy theories on his Instagram.
Julie Kedzie, who was part of the famed JacksonWink stable as both a fighter and an employee, also took to twitter to express disappointment in her former colleague. She noted the “great deal of respect & gratitude” she has for the people in the gym, but also made it clear that “I’m so tired of this s—t.”
Winkeljohn has coached several UFC champions during his illustrious coaching career.
As businesses and income streams have been shutting down during this pandemic, it also affects Winkeljohn’s massive, multi-million dollar facility, that includes training areas, dorms, and full-size apartments.
MMA, like almost every industry in the world, has been hit hard by this pandemic. People have been struggling financially, and it’s easy to feel for them and understand their motives, but many haven’t been taking things very well. Problems and desperation can affect logic and decision making to varying degrees, and the combat sports world sure has its fair share of fake news, conspiracy theories, and coronavirus deniers during this all.