Mills Lane, the legendary boxing referee famous for using the phrase “Let’s get it on,” has died at 85 years old.
Lane’s son, Tommy, told the Reno Gazette Journal that his father, who suffered a stroke 20 years ago, had been in hospice for the last week.
“He took a significant decline in his overall situation,” Tommy Lane told the outlet. “It was a quick departure. He was comfortable and he was surrounded by his family.”
Lane’s wife, Kay, and sons Tommy and Terry were at his side.
“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,” Tommy Lane said.
Lane was a prosecutor and later a judge in Nevada, and was a boxing ref from the 1970s through the ’90s.
He was the official in the infamous second fight between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield in 1997, in which Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear off, and quickly became a household name.
Lane was iconified in MTV’s “Celebrity Death Match,” a satirical show in claymation, where he, of course, served as the referee.
He stepped down as a judge to become the face of “Judge Mills Lane,” a syndicated reality TV series in which Lane served as an arbitrator. The program ran for three seasons, from 1998-2001.
As a student at University of Nevada, Lane was an NCAA welterweight champion and nearly made the Olympics.
The family might hold a memorial service in the future but there will be no funeral.
“He hated funerals,” Lane’s son Tommy said.
