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Virgil "The Conqueror" Kalakoda (born 24 December 1979) is a South African welterweightboxer and kickboxer, fighting out of Full Body Impact Gym in Sydney, Australia. He is former a light-middleweight boxing contender and competed in K-1 MAX.[1]
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.[2]
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.
Virgil made his K-1 MAX debut on 4 May 2005 at the K-1 World MAX 2005 World Tournament Open against former champion Albert Kraus with the prize being a place at the quarter-final stage of the 2005 K-1 MAX final. Virgil was unable to defeat the 2002 champion but impressed enough to be offered a super fight at the final event.[3] After racking up a couple of wins with the promotion he was invited back the following year to take place in qualifying only to lose to the 2004 champion Buakaw Por. Pramuk.[4] Once again Virgil impressed in the split decision extension round defeat and was invited to take part in the quarter-finals despite the loss. At the final he met Andy Souwer in the quarter-finals and suffered his first stoppage defeat.[5]
Later that year Virgil made his first (and so far only) appearance in Shoot boxing's number one event – the S-Cup. He met fellow boxer Daniel Dawson in the quarter-final stage but was unable to proceed losing by unanimous decision. Despite early initial promise with the K-1 organization Virgil's record has been patchy – mixing good wins against the likes of Takayuki Kohiruimaki and Ole Laursen with a number of defeats including a shock loss against Se Ki Kim at the K-1 Fighting Network Khan in 2007.