Luke Humphries has branded a darts pundit as 'absolutely clueless' after he was quoted as saying 'it is like he is giving in to Luke Littler'.
Humphries, who is ranked at world number two, is the reigning Premier League champion and has won six major titles - including a World Championship - since 2023.
This season, he has reached the World Masters final, and won Players Championship 4 to claim his first ranking title of 2026.
In the Premier League, he currently sits in fourth, and reached the weekly final on Night 6 after throwing a 105 average in his 6-5 semi-final win over Littler.
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Humphries would lose to Jonny Clayton in the final, but reversed the outcome last week in Dublin in averaging 103 during a 6-3 quarter-final win.
'Cool Hand' followed that up by averaging 101 against Gerwyn Price, but the Welshman was in unstoppable form and averaged a staggering 109 to secure a 6-1 victory.
But darts content creator Charlie Murphy has been quoted as suggesting that Humphries 'might have lost a little bit of confidence' - as well as comparing him to reigning world champion Littler.
"He's never been full of aura, but he doesn't seem to have the stage aura or confidence that he used to have when he was winning," Murphy claimed to OLBG (via Oche180).
"I know you get that with winning, and he is not winning much right now. I am worried about him. Not that he is going to do a Peter Wright and drop down the rankings.
"I just think it is like he is giving in to Luke Littler. Now that gap is just going to get bigger and bigger. I would probably say he is not the second-best player in the world right now."
Humphries has won six of his 13 Premier League matches this season - the same as world number four Michael van Gerwen and world number three Gian van Veen. Both Van Gerwen and Van Veen have missed one night each through withdrawals.
Read more: Gian van Veen pulls out of Premier League in Dublin as statement issued
Humphries took to Twitter to address the comments - and made his feelings perfectly clear.
"Whoever said this is absolutely clueless!!" he wrote.
"I'm sure it was someone with bags of experience and not just some random person who's never thrown a professional dart in their life."
"Disrespect to someone who absolutely dedicates his life to being the best version of himself and sportsman!" he added.
"Always someone that wants to dig the knife in when I've had a not even a bad last six months with four major finals."
Murphy responded to Humphries in the comments section, stating that he felt his words had been 'completely taken out of context' and that he had 'little to no ... control over the editing'.
"What's been written I feel has been completely taken out of context or at least what I was trying to say anyway," he said.
"I think I need to learn to be a lot more careful with what/how I say things but that'll be a lesson learned, spent a good bit of time with Luke and no disrespect was meant.
"I was asked to do these round ups with little to no experience or training / control over the editing, anyway apologies from me."
Topics: Luke Humphries, Luke Littler, Darts
Ryan Smart