Six months between fights for a UFC fighter is common.

Welterweight champion Robbie Lawler and heavyweight champion Stipie Miocic have fought three times in the past 18 months.

Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, who faces Michael Bisping on Saturday in the UFC 199 main event, will fight for the third time in 19 months.

For Max Holloway, six months isn’t common at all. Since making his UFC debut at the age of 21, this is the first time he’s had to wait half a year to get back into the cage.

The 24-year-old Waianae native will step inside the Octagon for the 15th time since his debut in February 2012 when he faces Ricardo Lamas in a battle of top-five-ranked featherweights at UFC 199.

Thumb surgery required Holloway (15-3, 11-3 UFC) to sit out exactly 174 days since his unanimous decision win over Jeremy Stephens last December. It extended his UFC winning streak to eight, which is fourth-best among active fighters, trailing only Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre and Demetrious Johnson.

His 11 wins in his first 46 months with the UFC is already a featherweight record. Holloway has had to keep an extensive pace to get there and hasn’t enjoyed having to slow it down in 2016.

“The past two years I’ve had four fights each year … and having this layoff for the first six months into the new year is kind of frustrating,” Holloway said this week from Los Angeles. “Everything happens for a reason and I’m 110 percent better now.”

Now ranked fourth at 145 pounds, Holloway has to prepare for a longer wait between fights. Taking on fighters who make sense, especially with a win over the fifth-ranked Lamas (16-4, 7-2), will become a priority.

The division has been thrown into flux with the antics of champion Conor McGregor, who seems more enamored with fighting Floyd Mayweather in a boxing ring than defending a 145-pound UFC title.

An interim title fight between former champion Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar in July at UFC 200 will temporarily crown a new champion.

Holloway has spent much of the last year and a half on the outside waiting, biding his time, despite racking up win after win.

He’s come to far too let it all slip away now against Lamas.

“I want to be one of the all-time greats,” Holloway said. “You don’t get that by losing.”

Lamas, who lost to Aldo in a title fight, has suffered his only two losses to fighters ranked in the top three in the division.

He also owns a submission win over Dennis Bermudez, who handed Holloway one of his three losses in a split decision back in May 2013.

“You know, Lamas has been striking lately and yeah he’s got that great wrestling, but Max Holloway doesn’t change,” Holloway said. “Max Holloway stays the same. We’ve got something that’s not broken, so why fix it?

“I’ve been addressing my wrestling and my jiu-jitsu and getting better and like I say, if we’re not growing with this sport, we’re going to get left behind, but Max Holloway does what he does.”

Lamas will have a 2-inch reach advantage against Holloway, who has earned two performance of the night and one knockout of the night bonuses.

The matchup is scheduled for the third of five bouts on the main card, preceding title fights between Rockhold and Bisping and bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber.

Hilo’s B.J. Penn was expected to return from a two-year layoff but was suspended last month by USADA for disclosing the use of an IV during a drug test.