He suffered a stroke 20 years ago (Picture: Bob Martin/Allsport)

Mills Lane, best-known as a boxing referee before embarking on a career in TV as a judge, has died at the age of 85.

The former professional boxer – who refereed the famous match in 1997 when Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield on the ear – was being cared for in a hospice when he died.

Lane’s son Tommy Lane explained that his father taken a ‘significant decline in his overall situation’ before his death, which was a ‘quick departure’.

‘He was comfortable and he was surrounded by his family,’ his son told Reno Gazette Journal.

‘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 added.

Lane was with his wife Kaye and his sons Tommy and Terry when he died.

Lane intervened when Tyson bit Holyfield on the ear when they went head to head in 1997 (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

Lane lent his voice to MTV stop-motion show Celebrity Deathmatch from 1998 to 2002 (Picture: MTV)

Born in Savannah, Georgia in 1937, Lane joined the United States Marine Corps for a few years in the 1950s, before becoming a boxer.

In the early 1970s, his umpiring career began, while also graduating with a law degree from the University of Utah, which eventually led to him becoming a District Attorney and a District Judge.

In 1997, Lane oversaw a match between Tyson and world heavyweight champion Holyfield, which bizarrely in the former biting the latter on the ear.

Lane umpired a bout between Bob Foster and Muhammad Ali in 1972 (Picture: The Ring Magazine via Getty Images)

Lane carefully inspecte4d Holyfield’s ear after the incident with Tyson (Picture: Michael Brennan/Getty Images)

After inspecting Holyfield, Lane disqualified Tyson from the match.

The referee subsequently sold the blood-stained shirt he was wearing at the time to a memorabilia collector.

In 1998, Lane landed his very own eponymous TV show named Judge Mills Lane, an arbitration-based reality court programme, which ran until 2001 when it was cancelled after three seasons.

Lane’s son Tommy said that they wouldn’t hold a ‘traditional’ funeral service for his father, because he ‘hated funerals’.

‘We might do some sort of send-off, celebration at a bar, or something like that, but not a traditional funeral,’ he said.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

MORE : Kirstie Alley ‘battled colon cancer’ before her death at 71

MORE : Kirstie Alley’s career as iconic actress dies aged 71 – from Cheers and Veronica’s Closet to Scream Queens and Big Brother