Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!

Hawaii’s loss is Canada’s gain. The lack of a UFC event in the islands for Max Holloway to headline has left the featherweight champion available to become a mainstay in another part of the world. Read more

Hawaii’s loss is Canada’s gain.

The lack of a UFC event in the islands for Max Holloway to headline has left the featherweight champion available to become a mainstay in another part of the world.

Tonight at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Holloway will fight in Canada for the fourth time in less than four years when he returns to 145 pounds to defend his belt against Frankie Edgar in the main event of UFC 240.

Coming off his first loss in 14 fights when he challenged for the interim lightweight title in April, Holloway needed to strip naked in order to make weight Friday for his first title defense since he crushed Brian Ortega at UFC 231 in December.

UFC 240 >> When: Today, 4 p.m.

>> Where: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

>> TV: PPV (ESPN+) Main event

UFC featherweight title fight

>> Max Holloway (20-4, 16-4 UFC) vs. Frankie Edgar (22-6-1, 17-6-1)

That fight, along with his interim title win over Anthony Pettis and his first UFC main event — a first-round TKO of Charles Oliveira in 2015 — will take place north of the border, in a country that has adopted Holloway as its own.

“It’s kind of crazy,” Holloway said the day before leaving for Canada. “We started it as a joke calling it the 10th island. Just the other day, (an Internet) meme was running around that had the greatest Canadian fighters of all time as (Georges St-Pierre), Rory (MacDonald) and me.”

Holloway had never been to Canada until his fight in Saskatchewan against Oliveira. He won his first interim belt in Toronto against Pettis and his performance in the same arena against Ortega in December is arguably his greatest ever.

During that time, he has adopted the Toronto Raptors as his favorite NBA team and attended a game against Golden State before the Ortega fight.

Prior to his loss against Dustin Poirier three months ago, Holloway made it known to the UFC he wanted to defend his 145-pound belt in July as long as he was medically cleared.

The UFC had two pay-per-views scheduled this month — Las Vegas and Canada — and Holloway “already knew” where his next fight would be.

“(The UFC) knows our fans are out there,” Holloway said. “And if there are two pay-per-views in a month you know Max Holloway is heading one of them.”

Holloway will become the second fighter in UFC history to defend his title coming off a loss. B.J. Penn, who went up to welterweight to challenge St-Pierre for the 170-pound title as the lightweight champion in 2009, was TKO’d by St-Pierre and then returned to 155 pounds to defeat Kenny Florian.

Edgar, who is 10 years older than Holloway but five inches shorter at 5-foot-6, defeated Penn three times in his career, including twice in title bouts as a decided underdog.

The New Jersey native enters this fight as a 3:1 underdog and even mentioned the similarities he feels between this fight and the two Penn title bouts.

“It does seem very familiar to my first fight with B.J., where people were overlooking me,” Edgar said during a media day interview with MMA Fighting on Thursday. “I’m fighting the most dominant champion in the weight class from Hawaii. It does, it does … very eerie.”

When Edgar shocked Penn to win the lightweight belt, Holloway was 18 years old and had yet to turn pro.

Now 37, Edgar can join a rare group of UFC champions in multiple weight classes, but a loss could mean the end of his title aspirations for good.

“I appreciate him a lot. Train until your idols become your rivals,” Holloway said. “He’s one of the guys. He’s a legend and I hear people throw dirt on his name and this and that and it blows my mind. Just because your favorite fighter can’t beat him and then he gets a title shot, be mad at your favorite fighter, don’t be mad at this guy. He’s doing his job.”

Tonight’s pay-per-view is available through ESPN+.

Holloway’s fight is scheduled for approximately 6:15 p.m.