By KOTC Staff
Although it’s been a disappointing couple of years in the decade long career of Dan Shenk, as a run of injuries have kept the veteran on the sidelines, at long last the Prince George middleweight will get to fight later this month. Shenk will make his return against Kris Miskenack at King of the Cage Canada’s April 29th “Mile Zero” event in Dawson Creek, B.C., and the 32 year-old couldn’t be happier about it.
“I’ve been plagued with injuries,” said Shenk, while discussing the fact he has not fought since April, 2009. “I’ve been slated to fight for Aggression, I’ve been scheduled to fight for KOTC twice, and I was supposed to fight for Bill Mahood’s card, the XFC. It’s just been injury after injury after injury.”
“I’ve injured my knees, my elbows,” Shenk added. “My training is usually out of Price George out of my school Team Shenk Tank, but my training got the point where I needed to find a new camp. So I’ve been going all over Western Canada training at new schools, but kept getting injured; I was actually training down at Team Toshido with Rory MacDonald and David Lea last summer.”
From 2007 through 2009, Shenk competed five times, scoring two wins under the KOTC banner against Daryl Bonar and Jordan Boudreau, before tapping out Dan Chambers at Rumble in the Cage 30 in June, 2008.
“I’m really excited; it feels really good to get back in there,” said Shenk. “I’m going to start really banging out some fights and get back at her...I’ve always been an exciting fighter to watch, so people seem to like to talk about me, so yeah, I’m just really excited to get back for the fans, haters and whoever else.”
In Miskenack, Shenk will take on a fighter who has gone 3-1 to date fighting for KOTC Canada. Most recently, at the promotion’s 48th event last November, Miskenack stopped Mariusz Zastawny in the first round.
“He’s a kickboxer; so he’ll have good stand-up,” said Shenk, when asked to assess his next opponent. “Not being cocky, but all the guys he’s fought are 0-1, or 0-2, where if you look at my record, the guys I’ve lost to have fought in the UFC; Jesse Bongfeldt just made his UFC debut, (Dennis) Hallman beat Matt Hughes, Kultar Gill has K-1 experience, and my record out there doesn’t have a lot of the old fights I had.”
“I’m just going to fight my fight; I’ll put it that way,” Shenk stated while discussing strategy. “That’s probably as much game-plan as I’m going to discuss, but I definitely have a game-plan going in. I’m not going to fight someone else’s fight.”
Shenk reported that soon he will take a break from his full time job to head down to Nanaimo, B.C., to put in some extra time training with John Punt and Impact MMA. Now that he’s healthy, Shenk is feeling extremely confident heading into his April 29th bout, and he’s hoping it will be the first of many wins in 2011.
“Oh yeah,” said Shenk, when asked if he believes he’s ready to make a title run. “I’m still young, I’m not young compared to some, but I have a lot of experience and a lot heart. I definitely feel like I can make a run...I just got back from the tryouts in Vegas for the 170 show the UFC is filming (The Ultimate Fighter); I had a really good experience down there, the guys from the UFC were really cool, I just need to get out there and win some fights.”
