PHOENIX – Henry Corrales got the result he wanted, but not in the way he expected.

The longtime Bellator featherweight fought out his contract Saturday and ended his deal with the promotion with a technical decision win over Aiden Lee on the main card of Bellator 273. The fight was stopped early in the third round when Lee was unable to continue fighting after an accidental eye poke from Corrales (20-6 MMA, 8-6 BMMA). The fight was judged from what happened before the foul and the decision win was awarded to Corrales.

“It’s not the way I wanted it to end,” Corrales told reporters at the Bellator 273 post-fight news conference. “The fans of Phoenix deserved more. And that’s nothing against him, that’s just kind of the way things (unfolded).

“This was the final fight of my contract. This was my 15th fight with Bellator, my 20th (overall) win, so there was a lot riding on this fight. I needed to go out there and put on a big performance. But yeah – I tried.”

Corrales doesn’t think the eye poke was as bad as Lee made it out to be. He was hoping the fight would continue so he could deliver a better ending to the fight.

The 35-year-old said hopes to re-sign with Bellator now that his deal is up.

“I love fighting for Bellator,” Corrales said. “Bellator is the sh*t. They’ve been really good to me and I just wanted to bring value to these Phoenix fans. So we’ll see what happens.

“(Bellator is my No. 1 choice). I want to keep a good thing going.”