Conor McGregor shows off ‘Tour de France’ calves as he compares himself to Velociraptor

The fighter, whose sometimes bizarre social media posts entertain and baffle fans in equal measure, posted an image of him standing on the balls of his feet while his foot and toe “grip the earth”.

“I can run full throttle like this,” he boasted alongside the picture. “Le Tour de France calves. Control, balance, stability, power.”

He added: “My standing foot and toe grip on the earth while up on the ball of my foot, is now that of a velociraptor.”

One informed fan replied helpfully that a Velociraptor “was a bipedal, feathered carnivore with a long tail and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on the back of the foot, which is believed to have been used to grab and disembowel prey”.

McGregor often uses the social media site to post his various musings, sometimes in the middle of the night, and included one recently that mocked his long-standing rival Dustin Poirier, suggesting the American fighter has a sexually transmitted infection (STI).

McGregor wrote: “Poirier has gonnorhea (sic), spread it around ahahhaahahah, he’s a goner.”

He also added some laughing face emojis to the tweet.

McGregor’s jibe was in response to a tweet by ESPN’s Brett Okamoto who had posted an update on Poirier after the fighter took to Instagram to say he had been hospitalised.

Okamoto wrote: ‘Some context on Dustin Poirier’s (@DustinPoirier) IG posts about being hospitalized … told me it’s staph, but he’s not responding to antibiotics over the last 24 hours. Undergoing further blood work now, hopefully get some answers today.’

A staphylococcus infection affects the nose or skin and can include painful, oozing blisters and boils.

It can spread from person to person and is deemed highly infectious.

McGregor had recently been in Amsterdam, and posted a series of photos to his Twitter account showing his face covered with a neck scarf as he stood in a busy street in the city.

He wrote, "In Amsterdam, as the face of fighting and loving”, alongside some heart emojis.

However, he is set to be sued for a second time by former close friend Artem Lobov after the mixed martial arts star branded him “a rat” for issuing proceedings seeking millions of euro in connection with the development of McGregor’s hugely successful Irish whiskey brand.

Retired Russian-born fighter Lobov (36) claims McGregor (34) embarked on “a concerted social media barrage” with the intent of harassing, intimidating and defaming him after he filed the legal claim in relation to Proper No. Twelve whiskey last month.

He also alleged McGregor’s father Tony sought to harass him directly via Instagram.

The allegations were outlined in an affidavit filed with the Commercial Court, in which Lobov said their alleged actions would be the subject of further proceedings, “not least for defamation”.

Last month, McGregor shared a ten second voice note on Twitter in which he repeatedly chanted: “Artem is a rat, na na na na hey!”