English heavyweight star Anthony Joshua’s rapid rise continues after he claimed the vacant Commonwealth title on Saturday at the O2 Arena in London, with an explosive first-round victory over Scotland’s Gary Cornish.

Both the Brits had come into the clash unbeaten. However, as widely expected, it was 2012 Olympic champion Joshua, 24, who emerged with his perfect record in tact as he produced another quick-fire knockout performance.

Joshua secured his 14^th successive win inside the distance when he dropped Cornish (21-1, 12 knockouts) inside the opening 60 seconds and then again on the 90-second mark. This time the 28-year-old from Inverness never looked capable of recovering and the mismatch was stopped after 1 min and 37 seconds.

Incredibly, given he had never been beyond three rounds, that made it the fastest night’s work yet for Joshua.

“Gary is a big man with a solid jab – but I dealt with that early on and managed to catch him with some painful shots to get the job done,” he said.

Joshua will now meet another of the UK’s undefeated heavyweights, Dillian Whyte (16-0, 12 KOs) for the vacant British title on Dec 12. Whyte, 27, had earlier stopped 40-year-old American Brian Minto (40-10, 27 KOs) in the third round to set up the grudge bout with Joshua, whom he beat in the amateurs.

“Of course, of course, it is so relevant, so relevant” Joshua said. “He’s 1-0 and this is my chance to get it back, to even the score. That’s the beauty of boxing. We’ve now got so many weeks to get strong, to get fit and to get our minds in the right place and then be back here at the O2 to have a dust up in front of all these wonderful people.”