Jiri Prochazka wants to fight for the light heavyweight title before the end of the year.

Prochazka hasn't competed since his fifth-round submission win over Glover Teixeira back at UFC 275 in June last year to become the 205-pound champion.

He would later vacate his title as he required shoulder surgery, but is now fully recovered as he looks to make his UFC comeback. Given that he never lost his title in the octagon, the former RIZIN champion will more than likely fight for the currently vacant light heavyweight crown.

That fight looks to be with former middleweight champion Alex Pereira, who recently emerged victorious in his light heavyweight debut against Jan Blachowicz in their title eliminator last month.

Prochazka believes it'll be a great matchup and while the eventual date doesn't matter in the end, he still hopes to fight Pereira in 2023.

“That’s my next fight, [it] will be [for] the title,” Prochazka said on The MMA Hour. “So I think that Alex is the [opponent], [and has] the very good chance to show the world a good title fight. And I’d like to see him as my opponent in my next fight.

“Right now I’m on a technical camp so I don’t know what date they have for the fight. It doesn’t matter. I want to fight this year, so let’s talk about the date, the space for this fight.”

Before his injury, Prochazka was set to rematch the now-retired Teixeira for the title.

While that won't happen anymore, he sees Pereira as the next best thing given that Teixeira is his friend, mentor and one of his main coaches who helped him transition into MMA from kickboxing. The Czech star is also working on being the complete martial artist so that he's ready for any style of opponent, including Pereira.

“For me, it doesn’t matter,” Prochazka added. “I want to be the best, that’s why I’m working on the wrestling, the jiu-jitsu, ground and pound, and everything to push it to the next level — [working on] the standup too, to face whoever. For me, it doesn’t matter who is the opponent.

“Right now, after the messages to Glover, I want to fight with Pereira right now because it seems like the second fight with Glover [won’t] happen, and Pereira is his second version but more in the standup, so let’s do that.”