No amount of heart from Diego Sanchez could overcome the inevitability of his loss to Michael Chiesa on Saturday night.

In a fight between the Season 15 and Season 1 winners of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Chiesa (15-4 MMA, 9-4 UFC) toyed with Sanchez (29-12 MMA, 18-12 UFC) for three rounds in a lopsided and sad affair.

The welterweight bout opened up the main card of Saturday’s UFC 239 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.

The final scorecards were unanimous 30-26s, a conservative measure of Chiesa’s dominance over three rounds. While Sanchez managed to reverse a few positions, he was never able to threaten Chiesa in any significant way.

The stats broadcast after the fight told the tale: Chiesa landed 125 strikes and had 11:05 of control time. Sanchez landed 41 and controlled 2:18 of the fight.

The ending was written in the beginning of the action when Sanchez went for an early single-leg takedown attempt and was simply muscled out of position. He managed to survive an armbar attempt and get back to his feet, only to be tossed back to the mat.

Chiesa soon took the back and threatened a choke that he would spend a good portion of the fight trying to secure. He came very close, and yet Sanchez never conceded, choosing to take elbows to the side of the head rather than capitulate. The two men appeared to be in a different weight class.

Sanchez charged across the octagon in the second frame, encouraged by a lone cornerman that raised eyebrows prior to the event. Chiesa intercepted the attack and dumped his opponent to the canvas. Sanchez survived, bicycling his legs as Chiesa sat atop him and rolled smoothly from position to position. Things never improved for the “TUF 1” vet, however.

Chiesa smiled at a final charge of punches and proceeded to close out the fight doing the same thing he’d done in earlier rounds. Sanchez got the crowd on his side with a move here and there. But the outcome was never in doubt.

Since moving up to welterweight, Chiesa has won two straight, taking out a pair of standouts originally from the Jackson Wink Academy. Sanchez sees a two-fight streak snapped.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 239 results include:

• Arnold Allen def. Gilbert Melendez via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Marlon Vera def. Nohelin Hernandez via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 3:25
• Claudia Gadelha def. Randa Markos via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Song Yadong def. Alejandro Perez via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 2:04
• Edmen Shahbazyan def. Jack Marshman via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 1:12
• Chance Rencountre def. Ismail Naurdiev via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-28, 30-27)
• Julia Avila def. Pannie Kianzad via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)

For complete coverage of UFC 239, check out the UFC results.