Since his horror leg break back at UFC 264, Conor McGregor has been making the headlines for his actions away from the Octagon, and in particular, on social media.

As everyone is aware by now, the Irishman loves nothing more than posting controversial tweets and then deleting them hours afterwards. Well, according to one of his teammates, this is all part of a marketing ploy.

McGregor’s Twitter has seen countless attacks on former rivals and retired superstars such as Daniel Cormier, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Michael Bisping.

What seemed like a strange thing to do from the outside, is actually Conor McGregor proving he runs the game and knows how to keep his name in the headlines.

Former UFC fighter Chael Sonnen has claimed that a member of McGregor's entourage has contacted him to inform the fighter that he had been forced into covering the posts, which have all been a scheme to keep his name in the news.

In a video in front of his 861,000+ YouTube subscribers, Sonnen expressed how an anonymous member of the Irishman’s team contacted him saying that the tweets were purely for a marketing purpose.

In the video, Sonnen explained, as per The Mirror: "I heard from Conor's people, I hear from a guy in Conor's inner circle.

"He says 'I'm a little surprised you fell for it', and I say 'oh is that right? What exactly is it I fell for?'

"I'm a mark [fan without insider knowledge], but I'm a mark by choice, there's nothing happens that I haven't written the book on, I've been to the show and seen the strings.

"So this guy tells me I feel for it, he says 'the only reason Conor deleted those tweets after sending them out late at night is to create talk and controversy.'

"He says to me 'you think Conor doesn't know how the internet works? You think Conor doesn't know that once it sees cyber-space it never goes away?'

"'You think Conor doesn't know that it's going to make headlines?' Part of the marketing move was then to delete it, to have something even more to discuss and I feel for it, that's what they said to me.

“Conor's side would like me to believe that I've fallen for it."

However, Sonnen does admit that with McGregor being one of the sport's great entertainers, it is likely that he has been set up, along with millions of other fans.

"It is possible," Sonnen said. "I am in conversation with one of the great entertainers here, it is possible."