World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman indicates that Deontay Wilder will certainly be in contention to fight for a vacant WBC heavyweight championship - if current beltholder Tyson Fury decides to move forward with his retirement.

Last month, Fury retained the belt with a sixth round knockout of mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte.

Afterwards, Fury expressed his desire to retire from the sport.

Wilder has been out of the ring since October of last year, when he was stopped by Fury in the eleventh round of their trilogy fight. 

Wilder lost the WBC title to Fury two years ago.

Because he remains in the number one position in the rankings, Wilder will get first crack at the green and gold belt if Fury officially vacates.

"Certainly," Sulaiman said to Sky Sports. "Because he is the No 1-ranked contender in the division. I spoke to him a couple of months ago, he is doing great and he is looking forward to resuming his boxing career."

The number two ranked contender is Joe Joyce and Joseph Parker sits in the number three spot. They are already close to a deal to fight each other at Wembley Arena on July 2 - in what would be a clash for the interim-WBO world title.

Fury still has a lot of time before another mandatory defense is due.

"We have one year to have the next mandatory fight," Sulaiman said.

"At this moment, we will wait for the decision of Tyson Fury, and then we will either do a series of fights - a boxing tournament - going into a final elimination, but at this time we're going to wait because we don't know the specific circumstances.

"I believe that Joyce and Parker are fighting for the WBO interim championship, but I have not confirmed that. All of the variables may change."