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Couture up for fighting Anderson Silva after Toney

Randy Couture believes Anderson Silva is fighting 'not to lose' © UFC

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Randy Couture has confessed he would be interested in fighting Anderson Silva after he has dealt with the problem of James Toney at UFC 118.

Couture believes wins and losses do little to affect his legacy at this stage of his career, so he is only interested in putting on the most intriguing fights. James Toney, the former three-time IBF champion boxer who weighs 290 pounds, represents one such encounter.

But Silva remains a big talking point following his last-gasp victory over Chael Sonnen, which saw Sonnen dominate through wrestling for 23 minutes. Couture believes, as he always has done, that his own Greco-Roman style would trouble Silva, and he admits he would not mind testing the Brazilian.

"I've said all along the guy that's going to give Anderson Silva fits is the guy with that tenacious wrestling style," he said. "Danny Henderson had that ability, stole a round from Anderson [at UFC 82] when they fought, and kind of strayed away from that game plan and got to slinging gloves with Anderson, which I think is always a bad idea.

"I've said a number of times when asked if I'd like to fight Anderson that that would be a great fight. I think that I'd do well against him. He's a very graceful, amazing athlete, and one of the best guys in our sport. Those are definitely the kind of guys you want to fight."

Elaborating on Silva's recent fight, which was arguably the worst performance of his UFC career, Couture insists there is a mental problem currently restricting the UFC middleweight champion.

"I think Anderson needs to look at the spirit in which he's competing. It appears to me that he's been doing his best not to lose. Instead of doing what he did early on and competing to win, and taking guys out, he's doing enough now to get by, be successful and keep winning.

"Eventually that kind of fighting attitude will catch up with you. You have to kind of go out, risk it and lay it all on the line. That's the way it is. I think Anderson has strayed away from that a little bit, but I don't think he's getting old at all. I think he's still a tremendous athlete with amazing ability. You know, there were some pretty interesting things he still demonstrated in the fight against Sonnen even though most of the fight, he spent on his back and got dominated."

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