UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway missed out on the opportunity to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov once before, and he doesn’t intend on allowing that to happen again.

Holloway (20-4 MMA, 16-4 UFC) will move up to lightweight next month to meet Dustin Poirier (24-5 MMA, 16-4 UFC) for the interim title at UFC 236. With champ Nurmagomedov (27-0 MMA, 11-0 UFC) planning to take most of the year off in solidarity with his teammates also suspended for the infamous UFC 229 brawl, the promotion opted to move forward with the division.

Holloway said he saw the upside right away when he was presented with the chance to take on Poirier..

“Khabib said he wanted to fight me, but he wanted me to prove myself,” Holloway told reporters, including MMAjunkie, at a recent UFC 236 press conference in Las Vegas. “I got Dustin. April 13, I decided to prove myself. I’m going to go out there and prove myself, and when he’s ready to come back, I’ll be ready.”

UFC 236 takes place April 13 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Holloway vs. Poirier headlines the pay-per-view main card, which follows prelims on ESPN and UFC Fight Pass.

The matchup is meaningful for Holloway beyond just the interim title at stake. Poirier handed “Blessed” his first career loss at UFC 143 in February 2012, and since then the Hawaiian has flourished into a pound-for-pound great. He has a chance to prove how far he’s come since his octagon debut.

If he wins at UFC 236, all signs point to a unification bout with Nurmagomedov, who Holloway was supposed to fight on short notice at UFC 223 in April 2018 but was ruled out of the bout by the New York State Athletic Commission on weigh-in day due to concerns about his cut.

That last-minute withdrawal was part of a rough 2018 for Holloway, but he closed it out on a high note with a dominant TKO of Brian Ortega to defend his featherweight belt at UFC 231 in December. That 145-pound belt sits on ice for the time being while Holloway tends to business with Poirier. And while the outcome ultimately will decide what happens next, Holloway doesn’t intend to hold up the division.

“After that Ortega fight I had to take some time personally and some business stuff, then they came to me with this fight in April,” Holloway said. “Can’t let it slip through your fingers. At the end of the day, first things first, I got Dustin Poirier, and we’ll talk to the UFC after that. I don’t think Frankie (Edgar) or Jose (Aldo) deserve a champ that’s not willing to defend for a year. After this one I could go back down in the summer. That would be fun. But first things first, April 13.”

For more on UFC 236, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.