Terry Lane is absolutely one of my better friends in boxing. He, along with his fiance Tiffany and his younger brother Tommy, comprise the promotional company Let's Get It On Promotions, based out of Reno, Nev.
The second fight I ever covered as a boxing writer back in February 2008 was one of their Reno shows headlined by Jesse Brinkley against Otis Griffin. Brinkley was the Lanes' fighter while Griffin was based out of Sacramento, the region in which I lived in. I had interviewed Griffin prior to the fight for ultimateboxingresults.com as one of my first articles for them. (Later on, I would co-host a radio show with Otis for a year, Fight Fan Nation Radio).
Brinkley wore Griffin down and stopped him in the 11th round. I had traveled to the fight with a good friend of mine and we met my older brother, Mario, in Reno. My brother had been covering boxing for a little more than a year longer than I had for 15rounds.com, so he introduced me to people and helped me along. The Lanes were some of the first people I met in boxing, and from the beginning, they treated me with respect and not like some no-name writer. As the years have gone on, they've become some of my better friends in the sport and I miss covering their shows in Reno, which have been reduced in number since Brinkley stepped away from the ring in 2011. Mark my words, they're some of the brightest young guys in the sport and some of the handful of people in boxing you can't find anyone who will say a negative word about them.
They were able to guide Brinkley to a world title opportunity against Lucian Bute. It all came to where Brinkley, as an underdog in his hometown, defeated Curtis Stevens in an ESPN2 Friday Night Fights headliner in early 2010. To this day, that is one of the best atmosphered fights I've ever covered.
I've begun a boxing column called "The First Time" for RingTV.com that asks people in the sport about their various boxing firsts, with a different topic comprising each column. For this first edition, the topic was the first time you traveled abroad for a fight. I asked Terry Lane to contribute his memories from going to Montreal to challenge Bute with Brinkley, and he gave me an unbelievably well-written story that I excerpted in the RingTV story here. This is the full length that Terry initially sent me, and it is a highly-recommended read as it puts you in the shoes of a up-and-coming boxing promoter getting their first taste of the highest level of the sport. It also gives you an idea of what kind of people the Lanes are and why I consider them some of the best people in the sport--their passion for it. Without further ado, here is Terry Lane's recollection of that trip to Montreal in 2010.
