While I will give Cowboy the benefit of the doubt here and also recognize that he was kind of roped into the conversation by the podcast that he was on, I always have to roll my eyes whenever anyone talks about getting into the ring with Jake Paul.
Recently Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone was talking about various things on the Thicc Boy Studios podcast and the topic of Jake Paul came up. Cowboy, who is one of the most recognizable faces in all of MMA, had a different approach than others have had when Jake comes up in conversation.
For one thing, Cowboy is almost impossible to not like. He fights as hard as he can, for the most part always puts on a good show, he takes fights on short notice or long notice - any notice really, and then he treats his opponents with respect before, during, and after the fight. Honestly, have you ever seen Cowboy talking trash about anyone in an interview?
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that when the topic of Jake Paul was brought up that he treated the celebrity YouTuber fighter with respect and even acknowledging that the guy knows how to box and throws legit hard punches. He didn't call him out or call any of his fights rigged (which is something that I regularly do) nor does he point out that all of his opponents other than the first one were people that desperately needed money and would be likely candidates as people who would be willing to tone it down or even take a dive for a payday.
Cowboy is going quite well financially as he seems to be one of the only mid-card fighters that managed his money well. He is also transitioning, or at least attempting to transition into a career as an actual cowboy in old-west themed movies and series. I hope he succeeds at it but will admit that I have not seen this in actual practice yet.
The thing about these interviews about Jake Paul is that it always seems to me like someone has an angle on getting Jake's attention and luring him into what is bound to be a very financially rewarding fight. A retired MMA fighter can make an entire career's worth of payouts in a single fight with Jake Paul, so why wouldn't they pursue it.
Cowboy is either genuinely like this or he is playing the "nice guy" card as a legendary fighter who would be open to the idea of fighting Paul.
“How could I say no to millions of dollars? I would definitely go out there and do it, but I’m not sitting here saying, ‘Jake you’re a YouTuber, you’re not worth a fuck, blah blah blah.’ No, man. You’re making money and if you want to throw some money my way, I’m with you.”
As far as I know there aren't many potential fighters for Jake Paul that have ever been nice to him before the fights. Most people seem to have a tactic of attempting to get under his skin via Twitter until Jake finally puts his money where his mouth is.
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wouldn't it be better to just leave it as it is?
I think a Cerrone fight would be a good one, but I am kind of tired of Jake taking on washed up UFC fighters as a hobby. I would imagine that Dana White and the rest of UFC feel a little embarrassed about the fact that Jake has beaten all of them as well - or at least had a convincing enough show in the ring for people to believe that.
Will Jake take the bait? I hope not to be honest. I think that Cowboy has done enough to tarnish his time in MMA towards the end on his own - we don't need to drag him down further.