Conor McGregor calls Vladimir Putin 'one of the greatest leaders of our time' at World Cup

Amanda Christovich | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption France beats Croatia for second World Cup title France handled Croatia in a 4-2 victory in the World Cup final to send the underdog home and give the French their second championship in history.

Conor McGregor rarely goes long without embroiling himself in controversy.

The MMA fighter and boxer called Russian president Vladimir Putin "one of the greatest leaders of our time" in an Instagram post about attending Sunday's World Cup final.

According to the post's caption, Putin gave McGregor a personal invitation to attend the final. The post also contained two photos of the pair posing together and conversing with a soccer game on a television in the background.

"Today I was invited to the World Cup final as a guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This man is one of the greatest leaders of our time and I was honored to attend such a landmark event alongside him," the caption read. "Today was an honor for me Mr. Putin. Thank you and congratulations on an amazing World Cup. Россия вперёд"

McGregor's post sparked controversy on Twitter, where McGregor also posted the Instagram photos and captions. One twitter user wrote that McGregor "doesn't know the definition of (sic) world leader."

You don’t know the definition of the word leader then — Shaun Ritchie (@ftmsuperfly) July 15, 2018

One of the top comments on the post, by Twitter user Shawn Coss, read, "You may be my favorite fighter of all time but no,man, Putin is not a great leader. Unless you consider leading by fear and murder is considered great. Then yeah I guess he's great at murder."

You may be my favorite fighter of all time but no,man, Putin is not a great leader. Unless you consider leading by fear and murder is considered great. Then yeah I guess he's great at murder. — Shawn Coss (@ShawnCoss) July 15, 2018

The comment accrued over 400 likes in one hour.

This was McGregor's second Instagram post from the World Cup final, in which France bested Croatia 4-2 in what McGregor called "a truly amazing spectacle."

McGregor, who originally hails from Ireland, sometimes posts non-specific political commentary on social media accounts such as Facebook and speculation occasionally has surfaced of McGregor entering the Irish political scene.