Drew Dober is a cold-blood­ed fight­er with a warm smile. He looks hap­py and harm­less doing interviews.

Then you watch his high­lights, and won­der how long his oppo­nents take nour­ish­ment through a straw after his bouts.

Dober is help­ing head­line UFC’s first card in Den­ver since 2018. He is known for knock­outs. He com­petes as if every­thing is per­son­al, like the per­son across from him is not only try­ing to beat him but devour him.

Dober fin­ish­es take on a com­mon theme. Straight left. Right hook. Left hook. Opponent’s knees buck­le. Head bounces off the mat. Dober leaps into the air in jubilation.

While it’s not his focus lead­ing into Saturday’s fight vs. Jean Sil­va at Ball Are­na, Dober under­stands the fas­ci­na­tion with his pow­er. He sits tied with Dustin Poiri­er for the most KOs in UFC light­weight divi­sion his­to­ry with nine.

Reach­ing dou­ble fig­ures in Den­ver, the place he’s long called home, matters.

“Truth­ful­ly, it snuck up on me,” Dober told The Post. “I am just out here work­ing hard and hav­ing fun and a cou­ple of fights ago I learned I was tied. It’s not some­thing I think about like a lot of oth­er peo­ple appar­ent­ly do. But it means a lot to be part of a UFC world record.”

Dober is not from Col­orado, but he might as well be. He shift­ed from train­ing in Nebras­ka to the Cen­ten­ni­al State in 2012. His career was gain­ing trac­tion. From April of 2012 to Octo­ber of 2013, he post­ed a 6–1 record. He found his sweet spot.

“The guys in Den­ver were tougher. I was already kind of train­ing out here on my vaca­tions. So even­tu­al­ly I just want­ed to make the move,” Dober said. “I could have gone to New York, Flori­da and Cal­i­for­nia. But Col­orado was just call­ing me out.”

Dober, who is now  27–13, takes pride in being part of this event. Then again, at 35, he embraces every oppor­tu­ni­ty to step foot into the octa­gon. He was so deter­mined to stay on this card, that Dober agreed to five dif­fer­ent names after Mike Davis suf­fered an injury in train­ing. Jean Sil­va took the bout just two weeks after reg­is­ter­ing a TKO ver­sus Charles Jour­dain. Sil­va is 13–2 with a 10-fight win streak.

“It can be hard because of the uncer­tain­ty because you don’t know what you are going to get when they replace a fight­er (last minute). But luck­i­ly, I train in a way where I don’t focus on the oppo­nent,” Dober said. “I am ready. And I don’t care who stares across at me in the ring.”

Styles make fights and the crowd is already rub­bing their hands togeth­er in antic­i­pa­tion of this one. Sil­va is not bor­ing. He will take chances. That means Dober could fin­ish on his feet.

“He’s not going to try and lay on me for 15 min­utes,” Dober said dur­ing his pre-fight press­er. “So, I think this match is made for me, made for Den­ver, Col­orado, and it’s going to be the fight of the night.”

While there are many sto­ries of box­ers and wrestlers find­ing homes in mixed mar­tial arts by func­tion or des­per­a­tion, Dober’s path was more lin­ear. He grav­i­tat­ed toward Muay Thai train­ing at the age of 14. He became a two-time ama­teur nation­al cham­pi­on. But when he saw Chuck Lid­dell and Randy Cou­ture com­pete, his mind was made up.

“I rec­og­nized that it was a phys­i­cal chess match. See­ing them, I was dumb­found­ed. I saw the art and the beau­ty,” Dober said. “And I want­ed to be part of it.”

Dober’s pas­sion has not dulled. Most fight­ers his age are not capa­ble of or inter­est­ed in get­ting hit any­more. But Dober believes he’s aging like Ben­jamin But­ton. And inspi­ra­tion comes eas­i­ly with young daugh­ter Sonya now attend­ing the fights. That is his why?

“Yeah, because you only live once, these careers are short and you nev­er know when it will be over,” Dober said. “I stay active. And it’s kind of hard to explain, but I feel bet­ter at 35 than I did at 25. When you are in your 20s, you live on piss and vine­gar. You are a bad dri­ver of a sports car. Now, I have mel­lowed. I am wis­er and I think you see that in my performances.”

He hasn’t lost the thump in his fists. They should come with oblig­a­tory ice packs and health insur­ance co-pay­ments. This will be Dober’s 41st UFC bout, but this one feels dif­fer­ent. He’s home. And it fig­ures to pack a punch. Maybe even a knockout.

“Oh man, I haven’t been in front of the Den­ver crowd in over 10 years. That ener­gy and that love from the crowd, it’s going to be excit­ing,” Dober said. “I can’t wait to hear that song walk­ing to the ring. It’s going to be a spe­cial night.”

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