JUST AS KATIE Taylor did 13 months ago versus the same opponent, Amanda Serrano earned a lopsided unanimous decision over the almost inhumanly tough Miriam Gutierrez on Saturday night to set up a long-awaited showdown with the undisputed lightweight champion.

Serrano almost blasted Gutierrez out in a round but despite conspicuously hurting the 37-year-old Spaniard on umpteen occasions, ‘The Real Deal’ had to settle for a points win (99-90, 99-91 and 100-90) at Amalie Arena, Tampa as she improved her professional record to 42-1-1(30KOs).

Whereas Gutierrez scarcely laid a glove on Taylor during their 10-round encounter last November, she landed plenty of leather on Serrano despite the uncompetitive-looking scorecards.

Serrano, though, was utterly dominant and while she didn’t drop Gutierrez (Taylor managed to in the fourth round), her offensive prowess was obvious throughout a vicious but one-sided encounter.

Serrano, who is now managed by the same team who look after Youtuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul — on whose undercard she was starring on Saturday night — didn’t directly comment on her impending superfight with Taylor during her post-fight interview, albeit she intimated on a couple of occasions that it looms on the horizon.

The42 understands that Taylor’s team are targeting either 23 or 30 April, with Madison Square Garden officials keen to host the era-defining women’s bout in their 20,000-capacity main arena.

That would bring to the fore not only thousands of Irish fans but plenty of their Puerto Rican equivalents, with Serrano, a Brooklynite, originally hailing from the Caribbean island.

The prospective bout, which will be broadcast on DAZN, will be not only the biggest in the history of the women’s professional ranks but the most lucrative, with defending champion Taylor likely to earn somewhere north of $1.5m all told for her share of the work.