The UTMA 19 fight card is starting to gleam with gold. On September 26th, at the Žalgiris Arena in Kaunas, Dovydas Levickis will defend his 63.5 kg kickboxing championship belt.
Challenging Levickis (6-2, 3 KO UTMA) in the ring and attempting to seize the belt will be Modestas Žmuidina (1-0, 1 KO UTMA), who has earned an early shot at the title.
This fight will take place on September 26th at the Žalgiris Arena in Kaunas during UTMA 19, where the main event of the evening will be the clash between Sergejus Maslobojevas and Dominykas Dirkstys.
Tickets are selling fast and can be purchased via kakava.lt, while the live PPV broadcast is available at UTMA.lt.
“Levickis is our champion, having won the belt in his fight against Brižinskas. He truly proved his superiority, and as the new season kicks off, everything has to keep moving forward. Žmuidina also defeated Brižinskas, proving that he is fully deserving of this opportunity. Modestas trains at Sparta, one of the best gyms in Lithuania, so this is bound to be an absolute war,” UTMA head Viktoras Gecas said of the upcoming title bout.
“Defending the title is another opportunity for me to prove that I am the best fighter in this weight class in Lithuania. And honestly, when you’re fighting for a belt, there is always more hype and more eyes on you. Plus, this fight is happening on one of the biggest UTMA cards of all time, which only adds to the excitement. To be honest, I want a knockout victory. I want to deliver a massive highlight that everyone will remember,” champion Dovydas Levickis stated.
D. Levickis has been performing under the UTMA banner since the organization’s very first event. He earned his shot at the 63.5 kg kickboxing title at UTMA 13.
At the Kaunas event, Levickis faced Artūras Brižinskas in a highly anticipated rematch. From the opening bell, Levickis successfully targeted his opponent’s legs, repeatedly sending Brižinskas to the canvas. Despite having to beat the referee’s count once himself, Levickis ultimately secured the victory via technical knockout to claim the championship belt.
To date, this remains the crowning achievement in the UTMA promotion for Levickis, who stands as the 7th most active fighter in the organization’s history.
Meanwhile, M. Žmuidina, who spent the vast majority of his combat sports career in the boxing ring, transitioned to kickboxing just a few years ago. He made his promotional debut at UTMA 16. Facing Brižinskas in his debut, Žmuidina made quick work of the matchup, securing a first-round TKO victory following an injury to his opponent.
“This title fight is a test for me—a validation of the work I’ve put in and a chance to see how far I can go. The UTMA belt settles the ultimate question: who is the best in this weight division. Without a doubt, this will be the biggest fight of my entire career. Dovydas has a ton of cage experience; he’s the division champion, and that speaks for itself. As for his strength? I’ll answer that after the fight—right now, I don’t know how strong he really is,” Žmuidina reflected on the upcoming title clash.
Interestingly, Žmuidina completely dismisses the fact that he hasn’t been in kickboxing for very long.
“I’m enjoying my journey in kickboxing, and I’m still discovering new things. Do I feel like a newcomer? I haven’t felt that way from day one. I don’t put labels on myself; I’ll leave that to the fans and the pundits. I believe everything will show in the ring, and I’ll display everything I’ve learned over my 16 years in combat sports. At the end of the day, I am a fighter. Boxing gave me a rock-solid foundation and will always be my engine, while kickboxing is like a new tool in my arsenal. I won’t try to become someone else—I’m just living, improving, and adding more weapons to my game,” Žmuidina shared.
On the other side, Levickis is planning to exploit Žmuidina’s lack of kickboxing experience. However, the reigning champion did not hold back praise for his opponent.
“Žmuidina is a good, tough opponent—physically strong, has great character, and always presses forward. He definitely knows how to use his hands; he has a lot of experience boxing at an international level and has spent many years in the game. Calling him a rookie doesn’t make sense, but he doesn’t have much experience in kickboxing specifically. Boxing and kickboxing are completely different sports, and on September 26th, we are going to exploit that gap in experience,” Levickis asserted.
Žmuidina will head into the title fight riding the wave of victory, whereas the mood in Levickis’ camp is quite different. At UTMA 17, the Šiauliai native suffered a defeat in a 64 kg catchweight bout against Latvia’s Arsenijs Nikolajevs. Although the loss did not cost Levickis his championship belt, it served as a major wake-up call to keep improving.
“That loss was a kick in the backside for him—a sign that even though he is the champion of this division, the Latvian fighter proved that neighboring countries and the rest of the world have plenty of elite fighters. Moving forward from this, our goal is to attract more of those elite international and local fighters to this division,” V. Gecas noted.
“A loss pushes you even harder. It forces you to look at yourself from the outside, draw conclusions, and evaluate what went well, what went wrong, and what can be done better. You have to make adjustments and keep moving. But it’s all good, we aren’t hanging our heads—that’s the nature of this sport. The lessons have been learned, and I will return stronger. Simple as that,” Levickis affirmed.
While the 63.5 kg roster in UTMA is currently thin, the promotion is preparing for changes based on global combat sports trends.
“We have to admit that this weight class isn’t very popular in Lithuania right now—there simply aren’t many top-tier local fighters at this weight. Because of this, the promotion has a clear goal to expand internationally, especially for this division, as it is considered one of the premier weight classes globally. There are so many elite fighters at 63.5 kg in both Asia and Europe, and our target is to bring them over to UTMA in Lithuania. We believe this division has to move forward,” Gecas concluded.
Tickets are selling fast and can be purchased via kakava.lt, while the live PPV broadcast is available at UTMA.lt.
