No Nonsense Hall of Fame Referee Mills Lane Dies at 85, Refereed Mike Tyson Ear Bite Fight With Evander Holyfield
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Las Vegas, NV (December 7th, 2022)– Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame, and International Boxing Hall of Fame boxing referee, and Nevada attorney and judge Mills Lane, a former National Collegiate Athletic Association and United States Marines Amateur Welterweight champion before going 10-1 as a pro, died in Nevada on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, in hospice care at age 85. A stroke in 2002 at age 65 left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak.
Between 1971 and 1998, Lane served as a professional boxing referee, coming across as a no-nonsense, hard-nosed referee who would warn fighters and disqualify them for significant infractions of the rules. On November 30, 1963, Lane refereed his first bout at the University of Nevada Reno gym, an eight-round unanimous decision win for super middleweight Lonnie Toledo over Jimmy Ahmed, fought with eight two-minute professional rounds, a rarity for a pro bout.
On June 28, 1997, Lane refereed the famous ear bite fight between Iron Mike Tyson and Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield, a rematch for Holyfield’s World Boxing Association World Heavyweight title, which ended when Lane disqualified Tyson for twice biting Holyfield’s ears, claiming he was retaliating for head butts by Holyfield. The second time he did it, Tyson infamously bit off, then spit out, a one-inch piece of cartilage from Holyfield’s right ear. It remains the only such fight between two present or former world heavyweight champions where one fighter was disqualified for eating the other fighter, and Lane, thanks to Tyson’s notoriety for the event, never lived it down thereafter. Against Holyfield twice, and later Lennox Lewis, Tyson’s final three world heavyweight titles were losses.
Lane was admitted to the Nevada bar in 1970. In 1979, Lane became Chief Deputy Sheriff of Investigative Services at the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office. He was elected District Attorney in 1982 and District Judge in 1990. From 1998 to 2001, Lane hosted the television court show which enhanced his public sports profile, entitled Judge Mills Lane. Lane wrote the story of his life, the autobiography Let’s Get It On: Tough Talk from Boxing’s Top Ref and Nevada’s Most Outspoken Judge. Lane’s adopted hometown of Reno, Nevada, on December 27, 2004, proclaimed it as ‘Mills Lane Day’. In May 2006, Lane made his final public appearance, at the dedication of a new courthouse in Reno named after him, The Mills B. Lane Justice Center, which houses the Reno Municipal Court and the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office.
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