Two developments on Monday narrowed the Joshua vs. Fury saga to a single door, and it is the one everyone has spent three weeks declaring closed.

First, Matchroom president Barry Hearn told Boxing News what his son has been dancing around for a month. Matchroom is “gambling the future of our company” to keep the fight at Wembley, upsetting the Saudis, Netflix, and TKO in the process, and, in his words, “we don’t give a monkey.” The Hall of Famer framed it as representing not just Anthony Joshua but the British boxing public. It is the most direct statement yet of what the venue standoff actually costs: Matchroom’s relationship with the people who fund most of its biggest nights.

The contrast with ten months ago is stark. Last November, Eddie Hearn told talkSPORT that everything Matchroom did with Joshua would be “under the guidance of Turki Alalshikh,” and that it was Turki’s responsibility to make the Fury deal. From under the guidance of, to don’t give a monkey, in under a year.

Second, Tyson Fury’s escape hatch closed. A day after Fury declared the Joshua fight off on Instagram and called out Oleksandr Usyk for a November trilogy, Sky Sports reported that Usyk’s manager has dismissed the idea. That makes two backup plans dead in a week: Joshua turned down TKO’s 90-minute offer to take the fight in America, according to Hearn, and now Usyk’s camp has turned down Fury’s public proposal to replace him.

Which leaves the board like this. Fury has a signed contract, a November 20 date, and no alternative opponent. Joshua has a signed contract and a UK clause his promoter’s father says the company will risk everything to enforce. Sela and Turki Alalshikh, who fund the fight and control its announcement, have not said a public word in over a week. Dan Rafael’s read on Sunday, that neither man can simply walk away from what he signed, looks more accurate every day.

Every door except one is now closed. The fight that keeps getting pronounced dead is the only fight left that fits the date.

Time will still tell whether Eddie Hearn wins the Cadillac or the steak knives. But as of Monday, nobody in this story has anywhere else to drive.