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The chance to make history as a two-division champion isn’t what drives Max Holloway entering tonight’s UFC 236 interim lightweight title fight against Dustin Poirier. It’s the desire to be No. 1 — not at featherweight or lightweight — but at all weights. Read more

The chance to make history as a two-division champion isn’t what drives Max Holloway entering tonight’s UFC 236 interim lightweight title fight against Dustin Poirier.

It’s the desire to be No. 1 — not at featherweight or lightweight — but at all weights.

Ranked fourth in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings, Holloway hit the lightweight mark exactly, weighing in at 155 pounds on Friday for his first foray into the higher weight class.

A win over Poirier, who weighed in at 154.5 pounds, would make Holloway the fourth fighter in history to hold titles in two divisions at the same time. It would elevate his pound-for-pound status and push him closer to that desired No.1 spot.

UFC 236

Today At State Farm Arena, Atlanta Main card

4 p.m. (PPV) Main event

UFC interim lightweight title fight

>> Max Holloway (20-3, 16-3 UFC) vs. Dustin Poirier (24-5, 16-4)

“This is the kind of fight that excites me,” Holloway said at Thursday’s UFC 236 media day event in Atlanta. “The No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter should look dominant. That’s in my mind. They should be dominant in everything. I want to go out there and dominate. I want you guys to be scratching your head and be like, ‘What is this? Who is this kid and what is going on?’ ”

Holloway has had many people asking those questions during his current 13-fight winning streak, the second-longest among active fighters behind light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

Only once has Holloway fought at a weight other than 145 pounds. His third victory during the streak was at 149 pounds, when he TKO’d Clay Collard in 2014.

The timing is right for the 27-year-old Waianae native to make a permanent move up if he wants to. He’s defeated the two highest-ranked challengers in the 145-pound division and five of the top 11 overall.

He also dealt with health issues in 2018 that forced him out of three scheduled fights.

He attempted to take a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov in April on six days’ notice for the vacant lightweight title but was pulled from the card the day before due to the effects of trying a severe weight cut in a short amount of time.

Three months later, he was forced out of a 145-pound title fight against Brian Ortega three days before due to concussion-like symptoms.

Holloway has made it clear, however, that despite those issues, cutting weight is not a problem. This Poirier bout wasn’t a fight left up to him. It was simply the fight put in front of him.

“At the end of the day, the UFC sent me a contract (for 155 pounds). If they sent me a (145-pound) contract, I would have been here at (145),” Holloway said. “I’m a king in the (145-pound) division. I think right now, the UFC and (President) Dana (White) them want to make (the 145-pound title challengers) bake. They put them in the oven and let them bake a little bit longer.”

The built-in storyline for the fight is Holloway’s UFC debut at 20 years old was a loss to Poirier by submission.

That was seven years ago.

“The Max you guys are looking at today would have bodied 20-year-old Max,” Holloway said. “I would have put him in the cemetery right down the road on my street and would have have visited him every day.”

Of Holloway’s three UFC losses, one came against Dennis Bermudez by split decision in which nearly every media member had Holloway winning, leaving the Poirier submission and a decision loss to Conor McGregor as the two definite blemishes on Holloway’s record.

Avenging a loss to Poirier would only further the demand for a rematch against McGregor to completely wipe the slate clean, but it is not something Holloway has ever sought out.

“I didn’t spend no time thinking about it. Too many people dwell in the past … I don’t care,” Holloway said. “It happened (before), and if we cross paths, we cross paths.

“Our paths crossed, OK cool, we get to do this again. We get to run it back.”

The fight is one of two interim title fights on the card. Middleweights Kevin Gastelum and Israel Adesanya will fight for a 185-pound title in the co-main event.

Waianae’s Boston Salmon (6-1) will make his UFC debut in the opener of the preliminary card on ESPN against Khalid Taha at 2 p.m.

Holloway’s fight will take place at approximately 6:15 p.m.