Iconic boxing referee Mills Lane dies at 85
Mills Lane, who became famous for his raspy "Let's get it on!" catchphrase, worked many of the biggest fights of the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
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Mills Lane, a former boxer who became one of the best-known referees over the past half century and a Hall of Famer, died Tuesday morning in Reno, Nev. He was 85.
Lane’s son, Tommy Lane, told the Reno Gazette Journal that his father had been in hospice care for the past week. The elder Lane had a stroke 20 years ago, which ended his career.
“He took a significant decline in his overall situation,” Tommy Lane told the newspaper. “It was a quick departure. He was comfortable and he was surrounded by his family. …
“You never knew how long he had. We kind of felt like we were preparing for this all along, but there’s no such thing as preparing for this.”
Mills Lane, who became famous for his pre-fight raspy-voiced “Let’s get it on!” catchphrase, worked many of the biggest fights from the 1970s to the 1990s, reportedly serving as the third man in the ring for more than 100 championship fights.
He was probably best known for the second Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield fight in 1997 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the “Bite Fight,” in which Tyson chewed off a portion of Holyfield’s ear. Lane disqualified Tyson the second time he bit Holyfield.
And Lane worked the Holyfield-Riddick Bowe “Fan Man” fight in 1993, in which a man paraglided into the ring ropes.
“There was no fight we wouldn’t put him in,” Marc Ratner, the former executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. “He was as good as any referee in the world. I don’t care if it was a heavyweight fight or smaller guys, when he said ‘break’ and got in between guys, the fighters respected him.
“Not all referees have that. He was no nonsense. He took control. There was an aura about him.”
Lane was so popular as a boxing referee that MTV’s “Celebrity Death Match,” a claymation TV show that debuted in 1998, used Lane to referee fights between pop culture figures. After that, he became an icon.
Former boxing referee Mills Lane (center) is flanked by referees, including fellow inductee Joe Cortez (front right), during the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame inaugural induction gala in Las Vegas in 2013. (Photo by Ethan Miller, Getty Images)
Lane also was a prosecutor in Washoe County (Nev.) District Attorney’s office for most of the 1970s and ’80s, eventually being elected district attorney. He became a judge in the 1990s, after which he starred in the TV series “Judge Mills Lan” that lasted three years.
The justice administration building in Reno is named after Lane.
Lane started boxing in the Marines. He fought professionally in the 1960s, compiling a record of 10-1 (6 KOs). He lost his debut and then went undefeated.
Tommy Lane told the Gazette Journal that no funeral service is planned, but he added that the family might stage a memorial at some point.
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