# UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship

The UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship (Campeonato Mundia de Peso Semicompleto Junior UWA in Spanish) is a professional wrestling championship that was originally promoted by the Mexican lucha libre professional wrestling) promotion Universal Wrestling Association (UWA). the UWA operated from 1975 to 1995 but the title is still defended on the Mexican independent circuit after the UWA closed. The weight range for this championship is 97 kg (214 lb) to 107 kg (236 lb) but is not strictly enforced to these days. The UWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship has also been promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling and was at one time one of the eight championships that made up the J-Crown Championship. Following the breakup of the J-Crown, the championship was used by the Toryumon promotion but has since then returned to Mexico where it's defended on the independent circuit.
Super Nova is the current holder of the UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship, having defeated Operativo 209 for the title on May 17, 2013. As it was a professional wrestling championship, the championship was not won not by actual competition, but by a scripted ending to a match determined by the bookers and match makers. On occasion the promotion declares a championship vacant, which means there is no champion at that point in time. This can either be due to a storyline, or real life issues such as a champion suffering an injury being unable to defend the championship, or leaving the company.

## Title history
### Key

| Reign | The reign number for the specific set of wrestlers listed. |
| Event | The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the titles were won |
| N/A | The specific information is not known |
| — | Used for vacated reigns in order to not count it as an official reign |
| † | Indicates Championship reigns after the UWA closed down |
| § | Indicates that the title reign was part of the J-Crown Championship. |
| | Indicates that there was a period where the lineage is undocumented, could have been inactive |
| No. | Champion | Reign | Date | Days held | Location | Event | Notes |
| 1 | Cesar Valentino | 1 | November 20, 1977 | 441 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | Defeated Anibal America Salvaje to become the first champion. |
| 2 | Gran Hamada | 1 | February 4, 1979 | 66 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | |
| 3 | Perro Aguayo | 1 | April 11, 1979 | 248 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | |
| — | Vacated | — | December 15, 1979 | — | N/A | N/A | Championship vacated when Perro Aguayo was unable to defend due to injury. |
| 5 | El Solitario | 1 | January 27, 1980 | 428 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | Defeated Masanobu Kurisu to win the vacant title. |
| 6 | Eric Embry | 1 | March 30, 1981 | 119 | Puebla, Puebla, Mexico | Live event | |
| 7 | El Solitario | 2 | July 19, 1981 | 691 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | |
| 8 | El Signo | 1 | June 10, 1983 | 250 | Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico | Live event | |
| — | Vacated | — | February 15, 1984 | — | N/A | N/A | Championship vacated after El Signo makes an unauthorized title defense against Kato Kung Lee. |
| 9 | Aníbal | 1 | May 27, 1984 | 111 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | Defeated El Texano in a tournament final to win the vacant title. |
| 10 | Invader III | 1 | September 15, 1984 | Unknown | San Juan, Puerto Rico | Live event | |
| 11 | Aníbal | 1 | 1984 | Unknown | Unknown | Live event | |
| 12 | Negro Navarro | 1 | January 6, 1985 | 50 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | |
| 13 | Mano Negra | 1 | February 25, 1985 | 286 | Puebla, Puebla, Mexico | Live event | |
| 14 | El Cobarde II | 1 | December 8, 1985 | 86 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | |
| 15 | Gran Hamada | 2 | March 4, 1986 | 257 | Querétaro, Querétaro, Mexico | Live event | |
| 16 | Blue Panther | 1 | November 16, 1986 | 190 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | |
| 17 | Solar I | 1 | May 25, 1987 | 259 | Puebla, Puebla, Mexico | Live event | |
| 18 | Blue Panther | 2 | February 8, 1988 | 221 | Puebla, Puebla, Mexico | Live event | |
| 19 | Gran Cochisse | 1 | September 16, 1988 | 225 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | |
| 20 | Ringo Mendoza | 1 | April 29, 1989 | 423 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | |
| 21 | Perro Aguayo | 1 | June 29, 1990 | Unknown | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | |
| — | Vacated | — | February 1992 | — | N/A | N/A | Championship vacated when Perro Aguayo left the promotion. |
| 22 | Gran Hamada | 3 | December 12, 1992 | 274 | Mexico City, Mexico | Live event | Defeated Black Power II in a tournament final to win the vacant title. |
| 23 | El Engendro | 1 | September 12, 1993 | 10 | Naucalpan, México, Mexico | Live event | |
| 24 | Gran Hamada | 4 | September 22, 1993 | 792 | Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico | Live event | After the UWA closed in 1995, Gran Hamada brings the title with him to Japan. |
| 24 | Sabu † | 1 | November 23, 1995 | 8 | Kawasaki, Japan | Live event | |
| 26 | El Samurai † | 1 | December 1, 1995 | 107 | Niigata, Japan | Live event | |
| 27 | Koji Kanemoto † | 1 | March 17, 1996 | Unknown | Amagasaki, Japan | Live event | |
| — | Vacated | — | May 1996 | — | N/A | N/A | Championship vacated when Kanemoto is unable to defend it due to injury. |
| 28 | Shinjiro Otani † | 1 | June 17, 1996 | 58 | Tokyo, Japan | Sky Diving J | Defeated Kazushi Sakuraba to win the vacant title. |
| 29 | Último Dragón § | 1 | August 4, 1996 | 1 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | Defeated Otani in the second round of the New Japan J-Crown Tournament. |
| 30 | The Great Sasuke § | 1 | August 5, 1996 | 67 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | Defeated Dragón in the finals of the J-Crown Tournament to become the first J-Crown Champion. |
| 31 | Último Dragón § | 2 | October 11, 1996 | 85 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | |
| 32 | Jushin Thunder Liger § | 1 | January 4, 1997 | 183 | Tokyo, Japan | Wrestling World. | |
| 33 | El Samurai § | 2 | July 6, 1997 | 35 | Sapporo, Japan | Live event | |
| 34 | Shinjiro Otani § | 2 | August 10, 1997 | 87 | Nagoya, Japan | Live event | |
| — | Vacated | — | November 5, 1997 | — | N/A | N/A | Championship vacated after the J-Crown championship is divided back into the original championships. |
| 35 | Gran Hamada † | 5 | July 30, 1998 | 200 | Ninohe, Japan | Live event | Defeated Convict I to win the vacant title. |
| 36 | El Cobarde † | 1 | February 15, 1999 | 420 | Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico | Live event | Defeated Perro Aguayo to win the title. |
| 37 | Heavy Metal † | 1 | April 10, 2000 | Unknown | Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico | Live event | The final champion with a verifiable connection to the original title lineage. No records can currently be found of Heavy Metal losing the title to a challenger. Further title reigns beyond this point cannot reliably be linked to the original championship at this time, and are based on a wrestler's personal claim to the title, or awarded by another company. |
| 38 | Silver King † | 1 | 2006 | Unknown | Unknown | Live event | |
| 39 | Diluvio Negro II † | 1 | February 25, 2007 | Unknown | Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico | Live event | |
| 41 | Histeria † | 1 | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Live event | |
| 42 | El Pulpo † | 1 | June 16, 2011 | Unknown | Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico | Live event | |
| 44 | Operativo 209 † | 1 | March 31, 2013 | 47 | Stockton, California, United States | Live event | Won an eight-man title tournament hosted by Mexican promotion WWO to crown a new champion. |
| 45 | Super Nova † | 1 | May 17, 2013 | 594 | Yakima, Washington, United States | Live event | |
| 46 | Defunct | | 2015 | | Unknown | Unknown | No verifiable title defenses or appearances have been made since late 2014, when champion Super Nova joined the AAA Mexican wrestling promotion. Length of title reign is marked to have ended on 1/1/15. |

## Footnotes

* ↑ The most recent case of this is Mephisto holding the NWA World Welterweight Championship, a belt with a 78 kg (172 lb) upper limit, despite weighing 90 kg (200 lb).
* ↑ Hornbaker (2016) p. 550: "Professional wrestling is a sport in which match finishes are predetermined. Thus, win–loss records are not indicative of a wrestler's genuine success based on their legitimate abilities – but on now much, or how little they were pushed by promoters"
* ↑ Duncan & Will (2000) p. 271, Chapter: Texas: NWA American Tag Team Title [World Class, Adkisson] "Championship held up and rematch ordered because of the interference of manager Gary Hart"
* ↑ Duncan & Will (2000) p. 20, Chapter: (United States: 19th Century & widely defended titles – NWA, WWF, AWA, IW, ECW, NWA) NWA/WCW TV Title "Rhodes stripped on 85/10/19 for not defending the belt after having his leg broken by Ric Flair and Ole & Arn Anderson"
* ↑ Duncan & Will (2000) p. 201, Chapter: (Memphis, Nashville) Memphis: USWA Tag Team Title "Vacant on 93/01/18 when Spike leaves the USWA."
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Duncan & Will (2000) p. 397, Chapter: MEXICO: UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Title [Flores, Mora]