(Back when Dana still hadn’t perfected his menacing glare)

Cage Potato has learned from a source close to the fight that Canadian mixed martial arts pioneer Ivan Menjivar will step into the cage for the first time since 2006 to take on King of the Cage veteran and one time Felony Fighter Shad Smith at W-1: Judgment Day June 19 in Montreal.


After injuring his knee in a losing battle with Bart Palaszewski in the IFL World Championship semi-finals in Novemeber 2, 2006, Menjivar had several surgeries to repair the damaged joint and dealt with a number of personal and physical complications while trying to return to competition. 

He was involved in a legal dispute with his former manager Stephane Patry who claimed that Ivan had breached an agreement he had signed to fight for the TKO organization (which Patry also owned) by agreeing to a contract to fight for K-1.

Stuck in a holding patten while awaiting a resolution on his contract status, Menjvar was forced to take a day job to support his family and didn’t have the time to train properly to compete at the level he did in the past after putting in eight hour days.

The situation has changed and Menjivar has increased his training time alongside teammates such as UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, David Loiseau and Patrick Cote at Tristar in Montreal and by all accounts is back to top form.

Menjivar holds wins over Joe Lauzon, Jeff Curran and Hideo Tokora and his losses have all come at the hands of top-tier competition like Georges St-Pierre, Matt Serra, Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro, Jason Black, Caol Uno and Bart Palaszewski. He also dropped a disqualification loss to Urijah faber, but it as the video below clearly shows,  the kick that elicited the DQ did not in fact land.

(Video courtesy YouTube/Ivan Menjivar)

Here’s a highlight of some of Menjivar’s fights.

(Video courtesy YouTube/Ivan Menjivar)

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W-1: Judgment Day
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Pierre Charbonneau Centre, Montreal, Quebec

Main Event
Denis Kang vs. Dae Won Kim 
Bantamweight Championship Bout
Adrian "The Bully" Wooley (champion) vs. Randy Spence.
Featherweight Championship Bout
John "Haggis Basher" Fraser  vs. Thierry "The Surgeon" Quenneville.
Ivan Menjivar vs. Shad Smith
Antonio Carvalho vs. Juan Barrentes
Misha Cirkunov vs Ion Cherdivara
Jorge Britto vs Eddie Fyvie
Bruno Hosier vs Matt Dunning
Brent Franczuz vs TBA
Josh Hill vs. TBA