One world title will have to suffice for now.

Max Holloway’s attempt to become the fourth fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two different weight classes at the same time ended with the featherweight champion suffering his first loss in his last 14 trips to the cage in a unanimous decision to Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 236 on Saturday night at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

Holloway (20-4, 16-4 UFC) lost for the second time in his career to Poirier (25-5, 17-4), who was crowned the interim lightweight champion, setting up a unification title fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov likely later this year.

All three judges scored the fight 49-46 in favor of Poirier, who has beaten UFC champions in three of his last four fights.

Holloway, who is still the UFC featherweight champion, saw the second-longest winning streak in UFC history come to an end. Jon Jones hasn’t lost in his last 16 fights but one of them was ruled a no contest.

“Hey, I’m not going to take nothing away from Dustin. He beat a world champ. There ain’t (nothing) interim about it,” Holloway said in a postfight interview in the cage with UFC commentator Joe Rogan. “Nothing was different (at 155 pounds). I felt good. I thought it was my night. I learned different tonight.”

The fight earned one of two fight of the night bonuses, paying each fighter an extra $50,000. Holloway was taken to a hospital immediately after the fight.

The difference in power shots was evident in the first round as Poirier’s significant strikes clearly did more damage than Holloway’s.

Poirier opened up a nasty cut with a knee to Holloway’s face in the third round after Holloway’s right eye began to swell up after the first two rounds.

“Man this feels amazing. I feel like I’m in a dream right now,” Poirier said in the cage after the fight. “I beat one of the best pound-for-pound (fighters) in the world.”

Both fighters showed plenty of respect to each other when it was over. Holloway entered the fight ranked No. 4 in UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings.

According to UFC.com, Poirier landed 165 significant strikes and Holloway landed 146, but Poirier’s strikes delivered much more punishment at the higher weight class for Holloway.

Nonetheless, Holloway’s constant pressure that has made him the king of the 145-pound division continued at 155. There were instances in each of the final rounds that a series of strikes had Poirier in trouble.

“There was a time in that third round where I got hit a couple of times and I got hurt,” Poirier said. “He hit me with some good shots but I’m the (expletive) champion man. Right now I’m the champ.”

Holloway absorbed 151 of those strikes to the head with 65 of them landing in the first round that could have been scored 10-8 in Poirier’s favor.

The loss derails Holloway’s run at becoming No. 1 pound-for-pound for the time being, but he remains the titleholder at 145 pounds.

His last two victories are against the top two ranked fighters at 145 pounds, but Frankie Edgar (No. 3), Alexander Volkanovski (No. 4) and Renato Mociano (No. 5) are all on the cusp of potential title fights.

“I always wanted to see how he would do at 155 (pounds),” UFC President Dana White said of Holloway. “What I didn’t expect is he looked small at 155. I look forward to him going back to 145. He’s tough. He’s awesome, but I’d like to see him at 145 pounds again. Poirier looked much bigger than him.”

Waianae’s Boston Salmon was TKO’d by Khalid Taha in 25 seconds in his UFC debut to open the preliminary card televised on ESPN.