By Keith Idec

It could just be a negotiating tactic, but Billy Joe Saunders sent out a Tweet on Friday that states he’s “moving on” from a much-discussed fight against Gennady Golovkin on June 10 in Golovkin’s native Kazakhstan.

Saunders, the WBO middleweight champion, attached to the Tweet a direct-message exchange he had with Tom Loeffler, Golovkin’s promoter, on March 13. In the message, Loeffler informed Saunders that he was busy with events leading up to the Golovkin-Jacobs fight March 18 at Madison Square Garden, but that he would send a contract to Frank Warren, Saunders’ promoter, sometime that week for their June 10 fight in Golovkin’s homeland.

England’s Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) added in the Tweet that, as of Friday, he still had not received a contract for their middleweight title unification fight.

Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) reiterated after defeating Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) by unanimous decision in a difficult 12-round fight that he wants to box Saunders next because it would give him a chance to own all of boxing’s recognized middleweight titles.

Oscar De La Hoya has said publicly, however, that if Golovkin goes through with a June 10 fight against Saunders (or anyone) that it would eliminate the possibility of fighting Canelo Alvarez in a much more lucrative fight in September. De La Hoya, Alvarez’s promoter, thinks it’s too risky for Golovkin to fight June 10 because if Golovkin suffers a cut, an injury or worse of all, an upset defeat, it would ruin an Alvarez-Golovkin showdown three months later.

Loeffler has repeatedly said Golovkin needs to remain active and cannot pass up a seven-figure payday for the June 10 fight in Kazakhstan without having a contractual commitment from De La Hoya for the Alvarez-Golovkin fight. Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) still must defeat fellow Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs, 1 NC) in their May 6 pay-per-view fight in Las Vegas for Alvarez-Golovkin to remain a viable option.

Saunders, meanwhile, has fought just once in the 15 months since he defeated Andy Lee by 12-round majority decision to win the WBO middleweight title in Manchester, England. The unbeaten champion admitted he didn’t perform well in his first title defense – a unanimous-decision defeat of Russia’s Artur Akavov (16-2, 7 KOs) in their 12-rounder December 3 in Paisley, Scotland.

To view Saunders’ Tweet from Friday, click here: https://twitter.com/bjsaunders__

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.