Darts Star Awkwardly Refuses Opponent’s Fist Bump After ‘Thinking He’d Won Game’

Former World Darts finalist Mervyn King brutally ignored his opponent after he was offered a fist bump during their tense match.

The 2026 Winmau World Masters is currently underway at Arena MK, with several of the biggest names in darts set to compete over the weekend.

Ahead of the competition beginning, 120 players competed for the eight places set to join the world's top 24 during a preliminary qualifier event.

On Thursday, former World Darts finalist King faced Adam Warner in a close-fought match in the hopes of securing a spot in the Winmau World Masters.

However, perhaps more interesting than the match was a brutal moment between the pair as King completely snubbed Warner's offer a fist bump in the final moments of the match.

With both men winning two sets of the tense match, they entered into a deciding set to figure out who would come away as the victor.

In a gesture of good faith, Warner approached his opponent to make a clumsy, albeit well-meaning, offer of a fist bump.

But King made it clear that he wasn't at all interested in reciprocating as he simply stared at Warner's fist in an awkward moment that saw Warner eventually accept defeat and lower his fist.

Instead, King spun his hands to suggest that his opponent hurried up and got on with the deciding set of the match.

However, King may have regretted the moment shortly after as it is completely possible that it only further spurred Warner on after the Englishman came back from being 2-0 down to eliminate the former World Darts finalist.

Things only got worse for King as he later faced Beau Greaves in another 3-2 defeat, with Greaves then booking her place in the knockout stages with a 3-2 win over Warner later in the day.

Greaves was eventually eliminated by Alan Soutar in the knockout stages of the preliminary round.

Mervyn King doesn’t do fist pumps 😂😭pic.twitter.com/IYgDVCqPY9

— Live Darts (@livedarts) January 29, 2026

Some fans suggested that the reason for Warner's actions could be because he potentially thought he had just won the match, rather than the set, and forgot that it was still 2-2, while others suggested it was a wind-up tactic.

Reacting to the moment on X, one fan wrote: “Mervyn King doesn’t do fist bumps.”

While another added: "How's he looking for a fist pump for taking out 64? He's on a wind up."

And one claimed: "Don’t get all the hate for King. Never fist pump a start of a deciding set, only a deciding leg."