Editing Ray Mancini (section)

===Lightweight title challenges===
On April 30, 1980, Mancini defeated Bobby Sparks with a knockout at 1:28 in the first round for the regional Ohio State Lightweight title. Over a year later on May 16, 1981, Mancini won his first major title by defeating Jorge Morales for the WBC-affiliated [[North American Boxing Federation|NABF]] Lightweight championship when the referee determined that Morales could not continue after the 9th round.  In the post-match interview, Ray said that he was "keeping this title for myself because the world title is going to my dad".  Two months later, he successfully defended the title against [[José Luis Ramírez]] after a unanimous decision. Mancini's first attempt at a world title came on October 3 when he was pitted against [[Alexis Argüello]] for his [[World Boxing Council]] lightweight title. The event was selected by many (including ''[[The Ring (magazine)|The Ring]]'' and [[ESPN]]) as one of the most spectacular fights of the 1980s. Mancini gave Argüello trouble early and built a lead on the scorecards, but Argüello used his experience to his advantage in the later rounds and stopped Mancini in the 14th round.

Mancini would rebound from the loss to Argüello by winning his next two bouts, including a second successful defense of his NABF Lightweight title against Julio Valdez (10th-round TKO) which would earn him another chance at a world title.