At the opening bell, Bobby Lashley went in for a quick takedown. Lashley slammed Sapp to the canvas immediately. From there, Lashley stayed on top of Sapp and threw an array of punches. Sapp tapped to signal that he wanted the fight to end, however the referee did not see it, and Lashley kept punching. Finally, Sapp tapped again, and the referee put an end to the fight at 1:17 in the first round. After the win, Lashley announced that he is ready for whoever wants to take him on.

“To all the heavyweights out there, if you’re not looking at me, you better, because I’m coming. I’ll take on all challengers,” Lashley said.

Lashley, who is undefeated in the real sport of MMA after years as a star pro wrestler in the WWE and ECW, took on the fight with Sapp, to prove that his desire to excel in MMA is real. A win over Sapp improved Lashley’s record to 4-0.

WWE was still milking the moment Thursday, securing space at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square for a news conference complete with star wrestler Triple H. Giant flat-screen TVs blared WWE highlights and supporters clapped and hollered as McMahon stepped to the podium.

No matter whether Kroenke, an owner who prefers to stay in the shadows, was closely involved in the arena being double-booked for WWE’s Monday Night Raw and a Nuggets-Lakers playoff game on the same night. WWE isn’t letting this go easily. And Kroenke himself makes a much more appealing target than the faceless entity of his company, Kroenke Sports Enterprises.

McMahon boiled down the dispute to a basic element of human conflict.

“It makes me feel like our organization and all of WWE fans have been disrespected,” he said.

McMahon insisted all he wanted was a simple apology from Kroenke.

“Had he called me and said, ‘You know what, Vince, we screwed up. We had your event and I didn’t know my team was going to make the playoffs and my management screwed up somehow. I want to apologize to you and I want to make it right in some way,” McMahon said.

“Had he picked up the phone and called me and said that, I really don’t know what I would have done, except I wouldn’t have done this.”

Kroenke Sports no longer wanted to engage in the debate. But it was too late to stop the publicity machine of WWE, clearly intent on inflicting as much embarrassment on the organization as possible.

“We’re not going to fuel the media fire that this guy would like us to,” said Kroenke Sports executive vice president Paul Andrews. “We’re preparing for basketball games. Whatever he does from here is of no concern.”

A lot more people will know who E. Stanley Kroenke is after Monday night, when Raw airs on USA Network from Staples Center, home of the Lakers. WWE plans a parody pitting McMahon’s character against Kroenke’s.

Lashley is generally a polite, sportsman but he refused to touch gloves with Cook. He charged Cook in the opening seconds and missed with a huge right. Cook made the mistake of dropping his head. Lashley, a big MMA heavyweight at 6-foot-3, 249 pounds, grabbed onto Cook’s head with his left arm. From there, he used his bulk to lean on Cook and it took just a few seconds for Cook to wilt under Lashley’s weight. Lashley flattened out Cook (7-4) and re-positioned his right arm to cinch on a choke. Cook’s legs could be seen quivering and referee John McCarthy had to step in to stop the fight (video). All that in just 24 seconds during Maximum Fighting Championship 21 at the River Cree Resort and Casino just outside Edmonton, Alberta.

Lashley needed to get through this fight unscathed because he has a stiff test against freakazoid Bob Sapp right around the corner. Sapp, a former NFL player, NCAA All-American at Washington and a huge crossover star in Japan, is 6-4, 345. He doesn’t have much stamina but he is dangerous for about 4-5 minutes. Sapp (10-3-1) and Lashley will meet on June 27 in Biloxi, Miss.

Now he’ll have plenty of time to smoke them cuban cigars he’s always sporting.