Alex Pereira’s latest pit-stop en route to a presumed post-career slot in the UFC Hall of Fame takes him to Salt Lake City this weekend — but it’s not against an opponent that wasn’t quite on his radar.

The UFC’s 205-pound champion will fight the eighth-ranked fighter in his division, Khalil Rountree, in the UFC 307 headliner on Saturday night, and while it promises to be an intriguing stand-up affair between two striking specialists, Pereira told the media on Wednesday in Utah — including The Mac Life — that he is a little surprised by the matchmaking.

“No I did not envision that,” Pereira said, via his interpreter, adding that despite Rountree being “far behind in the rankings” his role as champion demands that he be “prepared for everything.”

“I saw his fight with Gokhan Saki, I saw some things Khalil had done there, things I studied in that fight which he won. I saw the fight against Dustin Jacoby, and I think he did not win that fight,” he added on his opponent.

Speculation has been rampant in recent months that Pereira will one day soon decide to challenge himself at heavyweight in a bid that could, in theory at least, stand him alone as the first three-division champion in UFC history. But faced with that prospect, or indeed a move back down to 185 to reclaim the middleweight title now held by Dricus Du Plessis, Pereira says that he is content to stick around and handle his business at 205.

“I would actually choose to defend my [light heavyweight] belt,” he said of his preferred next move. “For me to go in a lower weight class would take some time, need some more preparation. For me to go to a higher weight class, it also takes more preparation. So now the way that it is, light heavyweight’s perfect.”