Pic: Conor McGregor poses with Vladimir Putin at World Cup

The UFC superstar claims he was invited to attend the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final by none other than Russian president Vladimir Putin.

It’s a celebratory atmosphere throughout France, as Les Bleus captured the 2018 FIFA World Cup with a 4-2 win over surprise finalists Croatia at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia.

Earlier in the day, both UFC stars Conor McGregor and lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov were seen at the stadium, although they did not have a personal encounter. After the game, McGregor put up an Instagram photo of himself and Russian president Vladimir Putin, and claimed that Putin invited him to attend the World Cup Final.

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.

Today was an honor for me Mr. Putin. Thank you and congratulations on an amazing World Cup

The former simultaneous two-division lightweight champion is currently awaiting his July 26th court date in New York, after his bus attack at UFC 223 — seemingly targeted at Khabib Nurmagomedov for an earlier confrontation with Artem Lobov — resulted in fight-cancelling injuries to multiple fighters on that card.

While McGregor has entered the Russian political realm by meeting up with Putin, his rival Nurmagomedov is known to have close ties to Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, who is considered to be a Putin loyalist. Putin endorsed Kadyrov to remain that region’s leader back in 2016.

On the sporting front, Khabib vs. McGregor figures to be the biggest fight the UFC can make right now, but there’s been no meaningful indication that we’re any closer to seeing that matchup become reality.