If Dana White's announcement Friday that No. 8 Khalil Rountree Jr. is going to challenge champion Alex Pereira for the light heavyweight title on Oct. 5 in Salt Lake City in the main event of UFC 307, you're not alone. It was a shock to Rountree, as well.

Rountree, in an interview I did with him for my YouTube channel, said he first heard it may be possible that he'd be fighting for the championship on Wednesday during a telephone conversation with Hunter Campbell, the UFC's chief business officer.

White made the announcement Friday and it stirred up plenty of criticism from fans and fighters alike. Part of it was because two fighters who are ranked ahead of Rountree, No. 2 Magomed Ankalaev and No. 5 Aleksandar Rakic, are fighting at UFC 309 in New York in November.

But part of it is because of an anti-doping violation that forced Rountree to pull out of a planned June 29 match at UFC 303 with former champion Jamahal Hill.

Rountree discusses those topics, and plenty of others, in this interview.

Check it out, and please like it and share it with others.