When Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports, told Amanda Serrano that the network would air highlights of her nontelevised bout on the Carl Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz undercard on July 30 during the telecast of the main card that night, Serrano promised that the entire fight would be a single long highlight. And she made good on her word, crushing Calixta Silgado in a first-round knockout to retain her women’s featherweight world title.

Now, Espinoza has made good on a promise of his own: getting women’s boxing back on Showtime.

Serrano, who has since vacated her featherweight belt in favor of moving down in weight before winning a vacant women’s junior featherweight world title in October, will defend her 122-pound crown Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Only this time, her bout will air on live television, per plans Espinoza outlined for ESPN in November, to televise women’s boxing in the first quarter of 2017.

Serrano (30-1-1, 23 KOs) will face Yazmin Rivas (35-9-1, 10 KOs) on Showtime Extreme, a subnetwork of Showtime, where other preliminary fights will air beginning at 7 p.m. ET, ahead of Showtime’s doubleheader headlined by the Badou Jack-James DeGale super middleweight world title unification fight. The fight will be the first nationally televised English-language women’s world title bout in the U.S. since Mary Jo Sanders defeated Valerie Mahfood by unanimous decision to defend her International Boxing Association female middleweight title on March 30, 2007 (ESPN2). A week earlier, Holly Holm defeated Ann Saccurato to win the IBA female world welterweight title, the WBC world female welterweight title, the WBA world female welterweight title and the International Female Boxers Association world welterweight title.

“I’m glad [women’s boxing] is finally coming back, and I’m glad they put me on so I can show the world, I can show the critics, I can show the networks that it’s worth putting us on,” Serrano said. “I don’t want to be a one-time fighter on Showtime. I hope to open the doors to other women in the sport.”

This is the first women’s fight on a Showtime network (non-PPV) since Laila Ali’s stoppage of Kristina King in China on April 22, 2000. Certainly, Serrano’s appeal as a fighter has a lot to do with Showtime’s decision to put women back on the air just two weeks into the new year.

At 5-foot-5, Serrano packs a powerful punch, with a 63-inch reach. Puerto Rican-born and Brooklyn-raised, she is a dominant fighter with a 72 knockout percentage.

“You don’t think of her as being as devastating a force in the ring as she is when you meet her outside of it,” said Serrano’s promoter Lou DiBella. “But when you see her in the ring, and you look at her in the corner, you know the opponent across the ring looks her in the eye and thinks: ‘What did I get myself into?’

“I’m glad [women’s boxing] is finally coming back and I’m glad they put me on so I can show the world, I can show the critics, I can show the networks that it’s worth putting us on.”

Amanda Serrano

“She doesn’t just set out to beat people. She likes to knock people out. If she senses a weakness in her opponent or has hurt her opponent, Amanda looks to finish.”

Fellow DiBella fighter Shelly Vincent likened Serrano to a female Mike Tyson before Serrano’s fight in October. (For context, Tyson had a 76 knockout percentage in his career.)

Since turning pro in 2009, Serrano has held multiple world title belts and fought across numerous weight classes. The 28-year-old, who followed in the footsteps of her sister and fellow world champion Cindy Serrano, also has experience fighting on live television, in a six-round bout with Zarika Kangethe that aired on CBS Sports Network in May 2015 (which Serrano won by unanimous decision).

Her reputation precedes her, so much so that when DiBella was looking to book her opponent, he said he was hard-pressed to find interest among the top American fighters.

“I think the attitude a lot of the women had — and I don’t blame them, really — is they’ve built themselves to a certain level and they don’t wanna have their first appearance on TV be getting smashed by a pound-for-pound quality woman,” DiBella said.

With Serrano, and many other fighters in general, it isn’t only about her work inside the ring. She has the sort of marketability that is coveted in combat sports. She has a strong fan base in one particular area (Brooklyn), but appeal in other markets (Puerto Rico). She is bilingual. She is charming. And she is confident, but also offers a genuine “thank you” at the end of an interview.

She can sell fights. And it is all part of why she could be the face of the reintroduction of women’s boxing to the Showtime audience.

“With her background, her pedigree and, probably most importantly, her fighting style, we are confident the audience is going to respond very positively to her,” Espinoza said.

A knockout on live national television would bode well for Serrano, Showtime and the overall resurgence of women’s boxing. But a good fight could also go a long way, and according to DiBella, a quick win isn’t necessarily a guarantee for Serrano.

“It is a high-quality matchup of very talented women,” DiBella said. “I expect Amanda and Yazmin Rivas to deliver. I expect the best out of both of them. And as Amanda’s promoter, I expect her to retain the title. I don’t think it’s going to be easy, but I do think it’s going to be entertaining.”

Coming off a year that saw substantial strides for women in the sport — from Vincent and Heather Hardy becoming the first women to be featured on a Premier Boxing Champions card to Claressa Shields defending her Olympic gold medal in Rio before making her professional debut to the tune of a four-round decision victory in November — Serrano’s fight marks the next big step for women’s boxing.

“We’re gonna show that females can fight,” Serrano said. “We’re durable. We can get hit, and we’re gonna hit.

“It’s time for the sport of women’s boxing to be shown.”