Given he's a friend and training partner of Georges St-Pierre, middleweight Nate (The Great) Marquardt may not be the most objective judge of GSP's next title challenger.
But Marquardt isn't expecting much of English welterweight Dan (The Outlaw) Hardy.
"I think Georges is going to kill him," Marquardt told The Canadian Press on Friday.
St-Pierre faces Hardy on March 27 in the main event of UFC 111 in Newark, N.J.
Hardy (23-6 with on no contest) has won all four of his fights since entering the UFC, defeating Akihiro Gono, Rory Markham, Marcus (The Irish Hand Grenade) Davis and Mike (Quick) Swick. That run earned him a shot at St-Pierre, who has already disposed of most of the other 170-pound challengers.
"I think Dan Hardy's an up-and-comer guy, he's a young guy. He has a lot of potential," said Marquardt, a contender in the 185-pound division. "In my opinion, he's a good B-level fighter and I think Georges is going to destroy him.
"He's young, that's the thing. He could be a great fighter one day. But he's not there and he's getting his shot way too early."
Marquardt has been training with St-Pierre (19-2) in the champion's home town of Montreal in preparation for his UFC 109 bout with Chael Sonnen on Feb. 6 in Las Vegas.
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TRASH TALKING -- Neither Matt (The Terror) Serra nor Frank Trigg is the silent type and the trash-talking has been entertaining in the buildup to the matchup of the two veteran welterweights at UFC 109.
In a video blog released Friday (www.youtube.com/watch?v=858txJg1OQE), Serra reminds viewers that Trigg started it by calling him "a short Guido."
"Is that a dis? What's your point," said the five-foot-six Serra. "But he also called me an angry midget. Now those are fighting words.
"I wouldn't say I'm angry," he continued. "I ain't tall but I'm not angry. I'm not angry about not being tall. I like it. It's like you're the automatic underdog all the time because you're up to everybody's nipples. So it's awesome."
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TUF 11 -- Spike TV says production has started on Season 11 of "The Ultimate Fighter" with former light-heavyweight champions Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell and Tito (The Huntington Beach Bad Boy) Ortiz serving as coaches.
The cast features 28 middleweights with a new format to be unveiled on the season premiere on March 31.
