Alex Pereira is celebrating a new eight-fight UFC contract after vacating his light-heavyweight title to make his heavyweight debut against Ciryl Gane in the co-main event of the UFC: White House show on June 14th.

“Honestly, I just wanted to let go of my belt and fight heavyweight and fight for a belt,” Pereira said on the Ariel Helwani Show. “I just expressed myself that I wanted to do a heavyweight fight and they took really good care of me.

“They gave me a new contract. I’m actually really, really happy with my new contract. I actually want to thank Mick [Maynard], Hunter [Campbell], and Dana White for it. So this new deal that they gave to me? I don’t care about letting go of the belt or anything like that. … They took really good care of me. The way they gave me this last contract was so good that I let it up to them to do whatever they want. It doesn’t matter.”

Pereira is one of the UFC’s biggest stars at this moment, and a time when the likes of Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano, Francis Ngannou and Nate Diaz are all being lured over to Jake Paul’s MVP promotion for an MMA event on Netflix it makes good business sense to ensure that this former two-division champion will remain in the Octagon for several more years.