Nate “The Great” Marquardt was the guest on the most recent edition of PWB's Official Podcast Hotline with Lex and Ian, located at Pwbpodcastlive.com. In a candid interview, Marquardt addressed several topics:

On matching up against Thales Leites at UFC 85:

“I think it’s a great fight for me, you know he’s a world champion jiu jitsu player and a really tough fighter. I think it’ll be a great fight and I’m excited that we’re finally gonna get to fight.”

On potential challengers for UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva:

“I think Travis Lutter could be one, Yushin Okami could be one. But really honestly I don’t really see anyone in the division, other than myself, being able to put up a challenge for him. You know, I know I had my chance but that wasn’t the real Nate Marquardt fighting him and I think if I get another chance I’ll be able to take the belt.”

On what Michael Bisping brings to the middleweight division:

“I think just mainly his name. He’s one of the guys I’d like to fight just so I can get a big name fight . . . I know he’s tough, but I think he’s definitely in the middle of the division, he’s not going to be at the top at this point.”

On how Cung Le would fare in the UFC middleweight division:

“I think he would do well. I mean obviously you know, I know I’d beat him…I know he’d do well, he definitely has good stand-up, has good wrestling and wrestling defense. He’s not very good on the ground but just his stand up and his wrestling alone would take him pretty far.”

For the full interview, including Marquardt’s thoughts on Evans v. Liddell, his fight against Jeremy Horn, training with Greg Jackson, fighting in Pancrase and more on the middleweight division, check out pwbpodcastlive.com, or search “pwb podcast” on ITunes and subscribe today.