Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn said the Bray fighter faces a mandatory defence before her anticipated showdown against Amanda Serrano in December.

Ever the wily businessman, Hearn also raised the prospect of a rematch against Natasha Jonas when spectators are allowed back into indoor venues in the UK.

The Taylor camp are unlikely to jump at that bait at least in the short term. But the immediate priority is to satisfy one of the four governing bodies with a mandatory defence and there is no shortage of contenders.

“She’s got about seven mandatories lined up, so we’ve got to do something with them,” said Hearn. “We’ve got a big outdoor show in Leeds, the Warrington-Lara rematch in early September. She’s a huge Leeds (United) fan, as well, so I’d like to do something there.

“I like the Jonas rematch, I also love the Serrano fight. I think it’s one of those two for the December fight for Katie Taylor.”

It is understood that Headingley Stadium, which is the home of both Yorkshire County Cricket club and the Leeds Rhinos rugby league club, has been provisionally booked for a rematch between local hero Josh Warrington and Mexican Mauricio Lara, who stopped Warrington in a world title fight in February.

Incidentally, Taylor’s father and former trainer Pete was born in the Yorkshire city.

It was a case of shaken but not stirred for Taylor after her surprisingly close encounter against Jonas in the Manchester Arena. After a terrific contest Taylor remains the undisputed and undefeated lightweight champion of the world.

The scoring of the three judges, Michael Alexander (England), Yuri Kopstev (Russia) and Andreas Stenberg (Sweden), illustrated not just how tight the margins were, but the vagaries of the judging system in pro boxing.

Taylor herself alluded to the significance her winning the so-called championship rounds when interviewed on Sky TV immediate after the contest. “I knew the rounds were close and I knew I had to win the championship rounds.”

But she didn’t win all the championship rounds – at least according to two of the judges. Surprisingly, both Kopstev and Stenberg gave round 10 to Jonas, Alexander scored it a 10-10 draw. However, she did win rounds eight and nine on all three judges’ cards which proved crucial.

Alexander gave Taylor the nod in rounds 2, 4, 5, 8 and 9 and had them sharing the final round which gave his overall tally as 96-95. Stenberg also scored the fight 96-95 but scored the first and last rounds differently than Alexander. The Swedish official had Taylor winning rounds 2, 4, 5, 8, and 9 while he scored round one a draw.

Arguably, it was the scoresheet of the Russian judge which was the most accurate summation of what happened – at least up to the final round. He had Taylor winning rounds 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, and 9.

Fight statistics compiled by Compubox suggest Kopstev’s score of 96-94 was the most accurate of the three.

They had Taylor landing 102 punches – ten more than her former amateur rival.

The Liverpudlian only landed more punches in rounds 1, 6, 7 and 8 while the fighters couldn’t be separated in terms of punches landed in round three.

The quality and closeness of the final round is captured in the figures with Taylor landing 22 punches compared to 21 for Jonas – the highest return for both in the fight. What obviously caught the judges’ eyes was the accuracy of Jonas’ punches.

In terms of body punches landed, Jonas had a 24 per cent success rate compared to 23pc for the winner, while her accuracy from jabs was 10pc compared to 5pc for Taylor. And she was marginally more accurate with her power shots finding the target with 32pc compared to a 30pc return for Taylor. But crucially Taylor still managed to land 18 more power punches such was the sheer volume she threw.

Interestingly, Taylor’s probable future opponent Amanda Serrano was also of the view that Katie would have won more comfortably.

“I thought it was a unanimous decision like it was but by bigger numbers of Katie.”

Even though there was a much-publicised bust-up between Matchroom and the Serraro camp last summer after she refused to travel to the UK for a scheduled clash against Taylor, the relationship has been patched up according to Hearn.

“You kind of get to a point where you say, ‘Look, let’s stop being idiots and let’s just make the fight’.”

Serrano currently holds two of the four world belts in the featherweight division and could have a third before a December showdown against Taylor.

Worryingly for the Irish camp, Serrano is a southpaw and perhaps the take home message from Saturday fight is that Taylor struggles to be at her most effective against ‘lefties’.

For the other Irish involved in Saturday’s Manchester Arena card there were mixed fortunes.

Andy Lee enhanced his reputation as a trainer when he guided New Zealander Joseph Park to a split-decision win in a heavyweight encounter against Derek Chisora.

But it was a disastrous evening for Belfast’s James Tennyson who was stopped after two minutes and ten seconds of the first round in his IBO World lightweight title fight against Mexican Jovanni Straffron.