Jeff Horn: the teacher turned boxing legend on becoming a dad
World champion boxer Jeff Horn’s wife, Jo, taught him to back himself and roll with the punches. Now, with a baby on the way, they tell Liz Wilson their hopes for their first-born and Jo’s fear that Jeff will be knocked down and never get up again.
They say that behind every great man is a woman. It may be a cliché, but for Australia’s 29-year-old world welterweight boxing champ, Jeff Horn, it happens to be the truth. Although, in the case of Jo Horn, his wife, it’s more a case of standing right beside him, come what may.
Jo, 29, is the woman Jeff credits as his “rock” and the number one reason for his spectacular rise to fame this year, when he emerged from obscurity to claim a world boxing title.
With the warmest of smiles,
Jo is a no-fuss sort of woman who makes no apologies for the memorabilia strewn across the
living room floor of the couple’s modest Brisbane home.
Jo is Jeff’s one and only love. In fact, they have known each other since Grade 8, when they became childhood sweethearts. “I am the world champion today because of her,” says Jeff. “I knew from the beginning, when she’d laugh at my stupid jokes, that she was something special.”
With the couple’s first child due in December at the same time as Jeff’s first world title defence fight against British Gary Corcoran on December 13 in Brisbane, there is a real chance Jeff may have an unexpected double booking. And if it comes down to a contest between defending a world title or being at the birth of their baby girl, then the birth wins.
“If Jo goes into labour on fight night, I’m in strife,” says Jeff. “Her due date is two weeks later, but this kid is a Horn, so anything could happen. If she’s ringside, I’ll throw her the look, ‘All good, Jo’, and get on with the fight. The promoters will be happy with that headline!”
Jo confesses that the picture-perfect ride to motherhood she had imagined – such as the dream of setting up the nursery with Jeffrey (as she always calls him) in between training sessions – hasn’t quite played out in the Horns’ modest three-bedroom, one-bathroom Acacia Ridge home. “Nothing could be further from it – the flat packs remain unassembled,” she says. “I worry about everything and very little fazes him. If she arrives on fight night, she’ll know it was quite the entry!”
In a tell-all interview, the Horns speak openly about that life-changing fight in July, of Jeff’s journey from bullied teen to primary-school teacher to world champion and GQ magazine’s Sportsman of the Year, of Jo’s fears that one cruel blow could end everything, and the cyber cowards who continue to target them.
As a package, the Horns are a multimillion dollar “dream team”. By their own admission, they never saw this coming. What happened in July this year was their “Rocky” moment.
Jeff Horn was the underdog, but he beat the great Manny Pacquiao, an 11-times world champion with $500 million in earnings to his name. One of the greatest ever sporting upsets sent shockwaves through the international boxing world, leaving many to ask, just who is this kid from Brisbane?
“Everything changed. I was 14 weeks pregnant and Jeff was the new world champion – it was surreal,” says Jo. “We stayed that night at a city hotel and in bed, after the celebrations, we made a pact that none of this will change who we are, or how we live.
“The big winner here is boxing.
He’s changed the perception of the sport and the blokes who throw the punches. Fans connect with him at that grassroots level. We’re your average Aussie battlers, which is possibly why people warm to us.
We’re actually really daggy!”
The Horns’ journey has all the makings of the sweetest of love stories. From the beginning, their lives were destined to connect, with their workingclass backgrounds eerily similar.
Joanna Kate Buckley was born in December 1987 the youngest of three girls, with elder sisters Renee and Melissa. Dad Mark is a handyman, mum Leigh works at a local sports centre.
Jeffrey Christopher Horn came a few months later, in February 1988. Like Jo, Jeff has two big sisters, Rebecca and Bianca, with younger brother Ben born two years later. The Horn family were neighbourhood favourites. The kids spent their early years running amok on their acreage in the outer Brisbane suburb of Pallara. Today, despite their parents’ divorce in
2013, the family remains close, with Jeff Snr a qualified builder, and mum Liza Dykstra popular at the family support centre where she works.
It was in Grade 8 at MacGregor State High School where Jo and Jeff first met. By Grade 10, they were inseparable. “We were mates. Jeffrey was the geeky nerd. I knew he was being bullied – kids can be so cruel,” says Jo.
Those first three years of secondary school were Jeff’s darkest days. He’d cry himself to sleep, admitting years later that he wondered if it was worth going on. He wasn’t a fighter then – in fact, the only punches he threw were
“I knew from the beginning, when she’d laugh at my stupid jokes, she was special.”
a few awkward swings, protecting himself against his attackers.
“I remember, in Grade 8, one of the guys bullying me. He ran up and punched me in the side of the head when I wasn’t looking. Since then, I’ve always had a deep-seated intolerance for coward punches. There’s no place for them,” says Jeff.
In a defining moment, he and a mate were followed home from school by a gang of 30 and they were helpless. “I was slapped repeatedly across the face,” he says. “It was the feeling of being on my knees that stayed with me. That feeling of uselessness – I never forgot that.”
Jeff’s talents in soccer and his speed on the track meant, by Grade 12, the bullies had all but backed off. Yet the signs of a budding romance began to show. “He won my mum over – he had it in the bag. We’d been to an 18th birthday and pashed in the pool. Mum picked me up after, with Jeffrey waiting to make sure I was safe. I got in the car and Mum said, ‘Who’s that boy? He looks nice.’ She was right. We’ve been together ever since,” says Jo, who married Jeff three years ago.
After graduating from school, Jeff had one dream – to become a teacher. Jo completed a Bachelor of Business and Sports Management, which is handy now as she oversees the Horns’ expanding empire.
Behind the scenes, then
18-year-old Jeff was about to enter the ring for the first time. “Boxing came well after my bullying years,” he says now. “I was studying teaching at Griffith University in Queensland when I hooked up with my now trainer Glenn Rushton. I knew if I flunked as a boxer, I had my teaching – it was a win/win.”
His first job landed him back in the “hood” at Pallara State School, not far from where he grew up. “I lucked out with Grades 4 and 5. I always knew I’d be a good teacher. I love kids and their eyes wide open, hungry for learning. It was very rewarding.
“I had the tools to know which kids were being targeted by bullies – I knew how to diffuse it early on before it got out of control.”
After representing Australia at the 2012 London Olympics, Jeff became a professional boxer and left teaching, a day Jo remembers well. “He walked in and said he was turning pro. I said, “Are you sure?” He knew he had the goods and took the biggest gamble of his life.”
Jeff knows he can depend on his wife. “She supports all my decisions without judgement,” he says. “Our entire foundation was built on a solid friendship. I can be in the next suburb and know she’s got my back.”
Jo believes his refreshing, boy-nextdoor image is a welcome change from the trash-talking, flashy boofheads who plague the sport. The fighter known as “The Hornet” has impeccable manners and is as polite as he is funny. “He opens doors for me and we never argue,” says Jo. “He spends his life fighting so when he comes home the last thing he needs is taking me on!”
With parenthood just weeks away, Jo’s focus is the end prize, but admits that her deepest fears for Jeff haunt her every day. “Since being pregnant, it’s consumed me,” she says. “I’d be lying if I said that I’m not worried about one wrong punch knocking him down forever. I have to trust they know what they’re doing. I almost threw the towel down myself in the Pacquaio fight. It’s hard to watch and sometimes easier to just get up and walk away. ”
The couple’s idea of the perfect night involves board games, Game Of Thrones and magic. “I’m a pretty handy magician. It’s put me in good stead with my boxing,” says Jeff.
“We have hundreds of games and I’m ridiculously competitive. I have to win. I’m also a terrible cook, but make a mean instant coffee – we don’t have one of those fancy coffee machines.”
The Horns don’t do anything fancy. They continue to live modestly as they did pre-world title. With a rumoured purse of well over $10 million for his fight with Corcoran, there’s an even bigger pay day if he comes up against unbeaten American Terence Crawford next year. One day, he may even face the great Floyd Mayweather. There’s a lot on the line – Jeff is on track to becoming one of Australia’s highest earning sports stars.
“I can only dream that’s how it will play out,” he says. “We’ve not touched a cent of the last fight winnings. There will never be private jets for us. Money didn’t come easy in the early days for our families. If anything, we’re even more cautious looking to the future.
“Our one hope from our success is to make sure our families are looked after – that’s important to us. They’ve always been our number one priority. This past month, I released my biography [ The Hornet with Grantlee Kieza] and I discovered so much about my heritage. The process of recording my life in words has been cathartic. It was very grounding.”
Recently, Jeff has had to tackle a new breed of bully
– the online variety. “They can come after me, but not my wife,” he says. “After the Pacquiou fight, they called Jo ‘fatty wife’, among other things. One bloke called me a ‘cheater’. He’s not very bright – left his name and address on the post. We make a point not to respond. That’s good advice for kids out there – silence is a winner.”
There’s another female in Jeff’s life – the four-legged variety. She’s their beloved dog, Lexie, a sweet-natured English Staffordshire bull terrier. “We’ve had her for three years and she’s been our number one girl. She will be great with the bub, she’s very protective,” he says.
With just weeks to go until the two biggest events in their lives, both agree they’re quietly relieved that their first-born is a girl. “There could have been that pressure with a boy, to follow in Dad’s footsteps,” says Jo. “And no, I won’t be encouraging her into the ring. I worry enough about Jeffrey as it is.
“Our main priority is she’s healthy, she’s not a crybaby like Jeffrey was and she gets my sweet nature and his ripping sense of humour. That’s not too much to ask for, is it?”
“We’ve not touched a cent of the last fight winnings. There will never be private jets for us.”