Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who co-promotes WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, is confident his team will prevail in the legal action being pursued by Deontay Wilder.

Back in February, Fury stopped Wilder in seven rounds to capture the WBC title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

In the aftermath, Wilder exercised an immediate rematch clause.

The third fight had been set down for a date in July, but then it was postponed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Eventually, Fury and his handlers proclaimed that Wilder's rematch clause had expired - and they were planning to move forward in another direction.

Wilder, strongly believing that his rematch clause is still valid, has initiated a legal action to enforce his rights and both sides are now in mediation.

Arum expects his side to win the meditation.

“It's one thing to bring a claim and it's a second thing to be successful. I believe that Wilder has no rights any longer for a third fight and therefore his claim will be denied. But I can't stop them from thinking otherwise and taking it to litigation," Arum told Marc Gatford via the Betway Insider blog.

"The contract says Wilder's rights ran out at the end of October and I really believe that contract displays clearly that Wilder does not have a claim for a third fight. Wilder had some surgery but that was taken care of in the contract, a 90-day delay from the date of the proposed rematch in July - and that has ran out.

"But I think we'll have a resolution on December 12. If Joshua is beaten and is then unavailable, I'll have a talk with Tyson as to whether he wants to pursue a fight with Wilder.”

At the moment, the legal battle is on hold until the outcome of next Saturday's fight between IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev.

“It's all on hold, we are going to see what happens with Pulev. If Pulev beats Joshua there's no Joshua fight for Tyson Fury because Joshua has a rematch clause. At that point, Fury is out there looking for opponents and I'd think the best available opponent would be Wilder," Arum said.

“But it's up to Fury to decide. Wilder has said some weird, Trumpian things that make no sense - he sounded like Donald Trump! Fury took offence and rightly so. If Joshua is not available, Fury will have to decide whether to overlook his remarks and go with a Wilder fight - that's up to Tyson Fury.”