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Anthony Fisher
A - NSW Amateur Featherweight Championships 1949 & 1950, 1950 British Empire Games Medals. Anthony 'Tony' Fisher was born on 21 June 1929 and spent the first 15 years of his life at Cargo. On moving to Orange he joined the CYMS Boxing Club and came under the watchful eye of Harry McDonald who also had charge of Pat Ford at the time.Tony was an apprentice electrician at O B Greens and his parents tried to persuade him to give up boxing and concentrate on his apprenticeship, but Harry McDonald convinced them that Tony had great potential and this confidence was justified when Tony took the Australian Amateur Featherweight title from F Cahill of Victoria in 1949.
Tony was selected to represent Australia at the Empire Games in Auckland in 1950 and the public of Orange responded and raised sufficient funds for Tony and Harry to attend the games. A crowd of 700 people farewelled the Orange boxer. He won his first Empire Games bout, but was defeated in his second. He came home to a hero's welcome.
Tony Fisher turned professional in 1952 and between then and 1956 he fought 18 professional bouts, winning four by knockout. The three fighters who knocked him out - Bluey Wilkins, Colin Clarke (twice) and George Bracken - were all hard hitting Australian Champions. Boxing authority Ray Mitchell once said of Clarke, 'he is the hardest puncher I ever saw, I would not let him pat my dog'.
In one amateur tournament in Orange, Tony fought a draw with Jimmy Carruthers, who went on to be Australia's first official world champion. After his last knockout loss to George Bracken, Tony retired from boxing and took up residence in Queensland. He passed away in 2002.
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