Conor McGregor encourages Alex Volkanovski to 'be a bowling ball' in bizarre Twitter exchange

The war of words between Conor McGregor and Alex Volkanovski has continued, this time the exchange taking a rather bizarre turn.

Rather than throwing out playground insults, McGregor instead decided to encourage the reigning UFC featherweight champion to 'be a bowling ball'.

Yes, a bowling ball.

With McGregor sidelined and Volkanovski emerging as the UFC's pound-for-pound king, it was only natural for the Irishman to start sticking his awe in

So, rather unsurprisingly, this isn't the first time the duo have gone back-and-forth, although we're not entirely sure what to make of this most recent exchange.

McGregor kicked things off, tweeting a picture of Volkanovski and current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev together.

His caption read: "My two old belts. On two little ticks. This fight does 10 buys."

Volkanovski wasted no time in hitting back though.

“A former wise man once said,” he replied to a previous McGregor tweet, which said “winners focus on winning. Losers focus winners”.

Instead of taking a below-the-belt shot at his rival, McGregor suddently back-flipped and changed his tune.

"Just watching and monitoring mate. That’s all," he said.

"Happy for you in the spot to be honest. I’ll be back. This is not over. You know."

To which Volkanovski responded: "Respect brother. Will be happy to welcome you back."

But that when things started getting slightly weird.

McGregor started dishing out advice to the Australian fan favourite, but this wasn't your stock standard advice.

No, instead the Irishman urged Volkanovski to become an inanimate object.

He tweeted: "And we dance on. Good. I was in your exact spot one time don’t forget. 145 coming up. Good luck. I’d say go heavier. Rugby days. Be a bowling ball. That’s how I’d do it as you. Your condition right now as i see it, I don’t know. But bowling ball style for you for best chance."

McGregor added: "Aim to head butt the chest cavity."

He's clearly implying for Volkanovski to stack on the weight in a bid to combat Makhachev's world class grappling.

It's just the bowling ball analogy which is kind of random.

As for Volkanovski, he has well and truly cemented himself as arguably the greatest 145-pounder of all-time.

Not only has he dismantled basically every featherweight put in front of him, but he's also now eyeing up a move to lightweight.

That said, a super-fight with none other than Conor McGregor is still on the Aussie's wish list.

“I think it works because he was a featherweight champion, and he’s the only other featherweight champion I haven’t fought yet,” Volkanovski said earlier this year.

“It makes a lot of sense.”

He added: “Yes, it is because he’s got a big name. Yes, it is because he is a big draw. It is because there is a lot of money. But at the same time, there is a story behind it.

“He hasn’t lost to a featherweight yet, and I want to be the first one.”