Boxing: El Paso a new frontier for Carl Frampton as he faces Alejandro Gonzalez

It’s an escape route as old and worn as prizefighting itself. Over 300 years of identical journeys to the one Carl Frampton has taken, seeking a new life in the New World.

There are two key differences though. For a start, not many Irish emigrants chose the dust-blown banks of the Rio Grande as their starting point for that new life and not many, if any, had it so good in back in the old world.

Belfast’s IBF world champion is 24 hours away from reaching the first significant staging post of his American journey.