Nate Marquardt just made a case for him jumping the line to take Dan Henderson's place as the next challenger to Anderson Silva's middleweight throne.  But he wasn't too busy to talk to me and heavy.com about the upcoming fight between his teammate Shane Carwin and Brock Lesnar.

"I think it's a great fight.  I'm very excited about it," Marquardt said.  "People have seen so little of Shane.  His cardio has been called into question and his resiliance.  But that's just because he finishes guys so fast. What they don't know is that this guy is an endurance machine.  He can go for days and he has power until the last second.  That's knockout power.  He's got great wrestling and was a national champion.  He moves well on his feet and has a lot of boxing experience.  And he has the hardest ground and pound, the hardest punch of any kind that I've ever seen.  The guy can hit you with a half speed punch and just completely rock you.  The guy touches you and he's going to knock you out."

Marquardt also had plenty to say about former teammate Bobby Lashley, a man he doesn't think is serious about the sport.  He also said Lashley, who is back in professional wrestling with TNA,  isn't ready for top competition.

"I train with two of the best heavyweights in the world, Shane Carwin and Brendan Schaub.  And he's not anywhere near them," Marquardt said.  Then he laughed, but suddenly his eyes got very serious.  "I've trained with Bobby a couple of times and for some reason he doesn't have a loyalty to our team.  I've kind of written him off.  I'm loyal to my guys."