The Hornet

Jeff Horn’s life reads like a fairytale. Written with award-winning author, journalist and boxing aficionado Grantlee Kieza, The Hornet is the story of a boy who, slapped around by bullies, saw through his tears a vision of himself as a hero, someone other people might one day look up to … Jeff Horn took up self-defence then boxing after his experience of being bullied as a teenager. Eleven years later, the now humble schoolteacher became world boxing champion on 2 July 2017 at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium. The fight drew a record crowd to the arena and a global audience of hundreds of millions. Horn’s victory over one of the greatest boxers of all time, Filipino senator Manny Pacquiao, was one of the most incredible upsets in Australian sporting history. But the young Australian’s triumph was decided not amid the roar in the vast arena so much as in the chambers of his heart, where the essence of his character lives with blood and fire beside his steel backbone. Jeff Horn’s journey will resonate with anyone who has ever felt downhearted or dejected, anyone who has ever been an outsider. In The Hornet, the champion boxer’s message is simple: never give up on your dreams, because if you push through tough times, amazing things can happen. Through his rise from the pit of despair to global sporting fame, Jeff Horn has proved to the whole world that anything is possible. Anything.