Virgil Kalakoda pugile

Virgil "The Conqueror" Kalakoda (born 24 December 1979) is a South African welterweight boxer and kickboxer, fighting out of Full Body Impact Gym in Sydney, Australia. He is former light-middleweight boxing champion, currently competing in K-1 MAX.Virgil grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. His dad Steve Kalakoda was a boxer and he used to go to the gym with him, and learnt by watching, since he was about 4 years old. Growing up around the likes of Mike Bernardo when he was in his K-1 prime was a huge influence to him.He had 10 amateur boxing fights, with only one loss to Ruben Groenewald in the final of the national tryouts.Virgil turned pro in 1996 at 18 years of age defeating Patrick Ngqoba by TKO on his debut in Cape Town. He went undefeated for his first seven professional bouts before suffering his first loss to Pascal Mtungu in 1997. In 2000 Virgil had his first professional title fight losing to Joseph Makaringe by tenth round TKO for the South African welterweight title. Virgil responded well to this setback winning his next thirteen fights between 2000 and 2003 and picked up the International Boxing Council (IBC) light middleweight world title and I.B.F. and W.B.N. intercontinental light middleweight titles. He suffered his first defeat in four years when he lost via split decision to fellow South African William Gare in a non-title fight in Cape Town. After a win against Wahab Adebisi he decided to move into the world of kickboxing.