text: cmll world middleweight championship the cmll world middleweight championship ( spanish : campeonato mundial peso medio de cmll ) is a professional wrestling world championship promoted by the mexican wrestling promotion consejo mundial de lucha libre ( cmll ) . while lighter weight classes are regularly ignored in wrestling promotions in the united states , with most emphasis placed on " heavyweights " , more emphasis is placed on the lighter classes in mexican companies . the official definition of the middleweight division in mexico is a person between 82 kg ( 181 lb ) and 87 kg ( 192 lb ) , but the weight limits are not strictly adhered to in recent years . as it is a professional wrestling championship , it is not won or lost competitively but instead , by the decision of the bookers of a wrestling promotion . the title is awarded to a wrestler after he " wins " a match to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport . the current cmll world middleweight champion is dragón rojo jr . , having held the title since november 11 , 2011 , which make him the longest reigning champion in the history of the championship . since its creation in 1991 , there have been 17 individual championship reigns shared between 12 wrestlers . el dandy is the only wrestler to hold the championship three times and apolo dantés had the shortest reign of any champion , 77 days . history the middleweight division was one of the first weight divisions in mexican lucha libre to have a specific championship as the mexican national middleweight championship was created in 1933 . when the mexican professional wrestling promotion empresa mexicana de lucha libre ( " mexican wrestling enterprise " ; emll ) was founded in september 1933 they became one of several mexican promotions to promote the championship . emll later created the " world middleweight championship to represent the highest level prize of the middleweight division , higher than the mexican national middleweight championship . in 1952 emll joined the national wrestling alliance , which mean the title was renamed the nwa world middleweight championship . in the late 1980s emll left the national wrestling alliance ( nwa ) to avoid the politics of the nwa and by 1991 they changed their name to consejo mundial de lucha libre ( " world wrestling council " ; cmll ) to distance themselves from the nwa . while they left the nwa the promotion kept using the nwa world middleweight championship as it had originated in emll . following their name change cmll decided to create a series of cmll - branded world championships , including adding the cmll world middleweight championship , the third middleweight championship in the promotion . cmll held a one - night , eight - man tournament to determine the first middleweight champion on december 18 , 1991 . the tournament final saw blue panther defeat el satánico to become the first cmll world middleweight champion . in june 1992 blue panther was one of may cmll wrestlers that left the company to join the newly formed asistencia asesoría y administración ( aaa ) , leaving the cmll world middleweight championship vacant . cmll held a 16 - man battle royal match to reduce the field to two finalists . el dandy and negro casas survived the match and a week later el dandy defeated casas to become the second cmll world middleweight champion . the championship has not been vacated since then . the exodus from cmll to aaa also meant that cmll lost control of the mexican national middleweight championship as then - reigning champion octagón was among the wrestlers that left the promotion . the mexico city boxing and wrestling commission allowed aaa to take control of the mexican national middleweight championship at that point in time . on august 12 , 2010 , cmll returned the nwa world middleweight championship to the nwa , but immediately replaced it with the nwa world historic middleweight championship to keep two " world " level championships in the middleweight division . on may 3 , 2010 jushin thunder liger defeated negro casas to win the championship . the match took place in fukuoka , prefecture , japan , which was the first time the middleweight championship changed hands outside of mexico and also marked the first time a non - mexican wrestler held the championship . reigns dragón rojo jr. is the current champion having won the title on november 18 , 2011 from jushin thunder liger . this is dragón rojo jr . ' s first reign as middleweight champion , he is the 17th overall champion and also the wrestler who has held the championship the longest , at 1 , 713 days and counting . el dandy holds the record for most cmll world middleweight championship reigns with three and is one of only three wrestlers to hold the title more than once , the others being negro casas and emilio charles jr . apolo dantés held the title the shortest amount of time , a total of 77 days . rules the official definition of the middleweight division in mexico is from 82 kg ( 181 lb ) and 87 kg ( 192 lb ) . in the 20th century cmll were generally consistent and strict about enforcing the actual weight limits . however in the 21st century the official definitions has at times been overlooked for certain champions . one example of this was when mephisto , officially listed as 90 kg ( 200 lb ) , won the cmll world welterweight championship , a weight class with a 82 kg ( 181 lb ) upper limit . with a total of twelve cmll promoted championships being labeled as " world " title the promotional focus shifts from championship to championship over time with no single championship being promoted as the " main " championship of the promotion . championship matches usually take place under best two - out - of - three falls rules . on occasion single fall title matches have taken place , especially when promoting cmll title matches in japan , conforming to the traditions of the local promotion , illustrated by jushin thunder liger winning the championship during new japan pro wrestling 's wrestling dontaku 2010 in a single - fall match . tournaments 1991 in 1991 , cmll held an eight - man , one - night tournament to crown the first ever cmll world middleweight champion . in the end blue panther won the championship by defeating el satánico . 1992 due to a large number of wrestlers leaving the company in the summer of 1992 the middleweight championship was vacated , forcing cmll to hold a tournament . they opted to start out with a 16 - man battle royal elimination match as a means to qualify for the final match the following week . negro casas and el dandy outlasted a field of wrestlers that included guerrero maya , águila , , guerrero del futuro , plata , de , jr . , oro , javier cruz , kung fu , kato kung lee , ringo mendoza , bestia salvaje and último dragón . the following week el dandy defeated casas to start his first of three championship reigns .