Modestas Bukauskas was surprised by Paul Craig’s retirement. However, he respected the Scottish fighter's decision, expressing admiration for his MMA career.Craig made a quick return to the octagon to face Bukauskas in a light heavyweight bout at UFC Paris on Saturday at the Accor Arena in Paris. 'BearJew' was on a three-fight skid before his matchup with Rodolfo Bellato at UFC Atlanta ended in no contest. Meanwhile, Bukauskas was coming off a split decision win over Ion Cutelaba at UFC 315.Craig put down his gloves inside the cage after losing to Bukauskas via knockout in the first round, ending his career. During a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Bukauskas offered his thoughts on 'BearJew's' retirement:''Well, from what I understand, I'm pretty sure he signed a deal with the UFC right before my fight. You could potentially say, obviously his first fight at light heavyweight ended in a no contest. So he's thinking, 'okay, we've got a guy who's had a couple of wins on the trot, I beat him and then I can go towards the top 15.' So, Maybe in his head, thought, you know, had he won that fight, he would continue.''He continued:''Had he lost, which is ultimately what happened, then he would have to call it a day because he obviously, I can imagine he probably wanted one more stab at trying to get the belt or try and work his way back into the rankings. It's unfortunate, obviously for me, like, because I thought he signed a new deal that he would continue fighting.... Again, he's done, had such an amazing flourishing career...I view Paul Craig in such a high degree. He's such an amazing athlete. So to see him walk away from the sport was obviously sad.''Check out Modestas Bukauskas' comments below:Modestas Bukauskas talks about his UFC futureAfter retiring Paul Craig at UFC Paris, Modestas Bukauskas opened up about his next possible opponents. During his post-fight interview, the Lithuanian said:''I've had four wins, three of those by finish, one KO, one TKO, one submission...my record is now 19-6, you can't give me anything else but a top-15 matchup. There's a whole host of amazing fighters. Alonzo Menifield's been doing really well. You've got Zhang Mingyang...Even Johnny Walker, there's an amazing group of names in that top 15. Give me any of those guys at the end of the day.''