Phil Taylor EXPLAINS why Luke Littler can WALK AWAY from Darts and REVEALS KEY INSIGHT!

Ajouté : 2026-06-05

[00:00:00]Uh, this Sunday, 7th of June, uh, at the AO Arena where Ricky Hatton had many of his great fights, there is a party, a tribute celebration of the life of that great boxer.

[00:00:10]>> Sounds fantastic.

[00:00:11]>> It's a terrific turnout. Um, it's it's very much in the style of Ricky. Live music, few beers, bit of comedy, lots of chat. Freddie Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness are going to be there.

[00:00:21]Lots of great boxers, Tony Bellew, Frank Bruno, Marco Antonio Barrera, Eddie Hearn, and our own Spencer Oliver, Johnny Nelson. So many people are going to be there. Josh Warrington.

[00:00:32]Uh, footballers, Jermain Defoe, Emile Heskey, so many people going to be there.

[00:00:35]>> Some good music as well there. Tiny Temper, Bugzy Malone, Russell Watson, Lottery Winners, all great bands, Rowetta, and Happy Mondays, of course.

[00:00:42]>> Also popping along, um, a good friend of Ricky's is the darts legend Phil "The Power" Taylor. Good afternoon, Phil.

[00:00:49]>> Hello, Phil.

[00:00:50]>> Good afternoon, boys. How are you?

[00:00:52]>> Yeah, very well, thank you.

[00:00:53]>> It's It's It's It's a night Ricky would have enjoyed, I think, looking at that guest list.

[00:00:58]>> Oh, definitely. He would have enjoyed it. That's That's for sure.

[00:01:02]>> So, it's Yeah, you're going to It's It's just going to be a chance people will be out there paying tribute, having a chat, and sort of playing music. I'm sure telling a few Ricky stories, and there's plenty of those, isn't there?

[00:01:12]>> I think so. Yeah, I mean, we haven't got the full schedule yet, which is which is coming soon anyway, but we we're all going to go just enjoy it, to be honest with you. It's going to be a great occasion, but a sad occasion at the same time.

[00:01:24]>> How did you two become friends then, Phil?

[00:01:28]>> I first met him. Well, I didn't meet him. I was going up the M62 before Ricky was famous then, and we're going towards Hull, and there was a little red little red, uh, Mini Metro it was, >> Mhm.

[00:01:41]>> coming up the side of me, waving out the window, plugging it. It was It was It was a shed, honestly. And this young lad waving waving at me through the window. And a few years later, he says, "Can you remember me?" I said, "I do remember you." It's funny how you remember certain people, though, because, you know, you meet that many people, you can't remember everybody. Yeah. But there's certain incidents that you do remember. I said, "I do you remember you? We hung out of a windy mini metro."

[00:02:04]Yeah, that was me. That was me. And that's the first time I ever met him.

[00:02:07]The second time I met him we were John Gwynne and I went to his pub and played it played darts against him.

[00:02:12]>> Oh, lovely.

[00:02:13]>> Well, he's he's mom and dad's pub then.

[00:02:15]>> Was he was he a all right darts player, Ricky?

[00:02:19]>> Average. He was a better boxer than he was darts player.

[00:02:21]>> [laughter] >> I should hope so.

[00:02:24]>> But he he was okay. He enjoyed it. You know, he he was a pub he was a pub player. That's what Ricky was.

[00:02:28]>> Yeah. And you used to go >> He enjoyed it.

[00:02:30]>> Mhm. And you'd go along with his fights, would you?

[00:02:33]You know, obviously time permitting.

[00:02:35]>> Many times, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:02:37]I remember being excited, you know, cuz Russell Crowe when he fought Kostya Tszyu, Russell Crowe was about five or six seats from me and everybody was Russell Crowe, Russell Crowe, Russell Crowe. And all the crowd were excited.

[00:02:48]And then as soon as he went in the ring and said, "My mate's going to smash Ricky Hatton." Everybody just turned against him.

[00:02:53]>> [laughter] >> Yeah.

[00:02:56]Think again, Phil.

[00:02:58]>> Yeah. Yeah. I think Ricky I mean he just the general public absolutely loved him, didn't they? Yeah, everybody loved him.

[00:03:05]Um not just for the boxing but for the way he was uh out of the ring. He had the he had the I don't I don't want to call it a common touch. He just had he could he could he could talk to anybody, couldn't he?

[00:03:16]Couldn't he, Phil?

[00:03:17]>> Yeah. He was a people's person. He was There's not many people like him in this world now. He he's He's like Paul Gascoigne. He can go anywhere and just be exciting. But as a boxer he was exciting.

[00:03:29]You know what I mean? He was value for me was the best value for money bar from people like Sugar Ray Leonard >> Yeah.

[00:03:35]>> or you know, Tyson Fury he's another one who who's value for money that gives everything.

[00:03:41]Yeah, entertaining. Yeah, that's that's the yeah. When Paul Gascoigne came on the pitch you just knew something was going to happen.

[00:03:47]>> Yeah.

[00:03:48]>> And Ricky never never backed away. He was always one where he went in, straight attacking. You say to him, "Back off a little bit, you." And no no chance, he just went at him and knocked him out.

[00:03:58]>> I'm quite shocked he had a red card, to be honest. Yeah, of course, yeah.

[00:04:02]>> Right, Metro.

[00:04:02]>> Oh, mate, you I think he paid about 50 quid in the shop.

[00:04:06]>> [laughter] >> He He must have made that uh I can rather Yeah, he must have made that compromise, I think, just to get the car and can't get somewhere, yeah.

[00:04:12]>> So, it's this Ricky's family will be will be there. All money's going to Mind, the Hatton Foundation, and City in the community, cuz obviously Ricky was a massive Man City fan. So, it's this Sunday, tickets from the aoarena.com.

[00:04:27]>> Yeah.

[00:04:27]>> So, go to aoarena.com >> uh to see all those great people in one room. And if you watched Ricky along the way, it'd be a lovely way to to give him a great send-off with lots of his friends in the room, so. Now, um Phil, Phil, I'm sure you would have seen uh Luke Littler the aftermath of Luke Littler after the Premier League darts that he won and his reaction and what he said afterwards about how much he'd been struggling and he was in tears on the stage. I mean, it is kind of tall poppy syndrome to an extent, and you suffered a bit of that. What What did you make of what you saw?

[00:05:00]>> I felt I felt for him, felt sorry for him. It's It's not nice. I mean, when you when you're up there and people calling you all the names under the sun, what they do um it is abuse. It's not It's not right.

[00:05:10]You know what I mean? We're We're there to entertain. I was glad get away from darts in the end, you know, I was 58 years old and and I'd had enough.

[00:05:19]I mean, Barry said, "Do you want another couple of years?" I said, "No, Barry, I've had enough now."

[00:05:22]Um I want to have a peaceful It's great now, cuz it's nice and peaceful. Um I love me life now. But, when you're up there week in and week out, it is hard to shake off people calling you obscenities week in and week out. You know, I know you're getting well paid for it, but you still still does affect up here.

[00:05:39]Um you're a good And And but at the same time, it's you know, be careful what you wish for at the same time, because every silver cloud is always a little bit of a a gray lining with it. So, you have to be careful. And it's just something now that he's got to get used to. He He will either get used to it or he'll walk away from it.

[00:05:57]>> Uh when did Was there a moment, Phil, where like you're on your way up, everybody loves you, you're winning all the time, you're brilliant? Was there a kind of moment when they sort of turned on you a bit?

[00:06:06]>> My my uh yeah, you get you get them turned against you. But what you've got to do, you've got to turn the crowd back by playing well.

[00:06:14]You know, if if you're not playing so well, they will they will boo you in Geeia. Come on in and shout obscenities [clears throat] at you. But you've got to you've got to do the 180s, the 140s, and the big finishes. And then they they they come back around then. And Luke Littler has got the ability to do that.

[00:06:27]Um it's difficult when you're playing in different countries, whether you're playing in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, um Germany, Holland, you know what I mean? You're going to get the crowds shouting for the local man there, obviously.

[00:06:38]But um it is a difficult when you're playing and you've got nobody to help you. You know, it's not like football where you can say to Rooney, you know, watch me back a little bit cuz I'm struggling. You're there on your own.

[00:06:48]It's a lonely world up there sometimes.

[00:06:50]It's exactly the same as boxing. You know, nobody can help you or only yourself.

[00:06:55]>> Um and I don't know if you've had a chance to talk to Luke along the way. Um was that something If he found it useful, was that something you'd you'd be happy to do?

[00:07:05]>> Yeah, I'll chat with Luke now and again.

[00:07:06]I'd more do with his parents, to be honest. Me and Luke isn't really a a phone person.

[00:07:12]So, if you phoned him, he probably wouldn't even answer the phone anyway.

[00:07:14]He He's uh very He's very He's very quiet. He doesn't um He doesn't bother with anybody. He goes in the practice room. He drinks He drinks pop. He doesn't drink any alcohol at all. Um and he just keeps himself to himself.

[00:07:28]He's on his phone. He plays games on his phone. The last time I was with him was at Chester Races and he was playing Luke Humphries.

[00:07:34]And I'm doing I'm talking and meeting meeting and greeting there.

[00:07:38]And he hadn't thrown a dart. I said, "Are you going to practice?" He went, "Nah, not bothered."

[00:07:43]And he beat Luke Humphries. He beat Luke Humphries 8-1. And I'm like, "How I don't know he did it. I don't honestly As soon as I walked through the door, me darts went out and I was practicing. I couldn't do what he did. Um but bless his heart, he What he's done beforehand, I don't know.

[00:07:57]But whatever he's doing, you know, I'd just keep doing it. Maybe practice a little bit more. But uh he has got a talent, an unbelievable talent. And it'd be a shame if we did lose him because he he he's putting darts right back on the map again.

[00:08:09]>> Absolutely.

[00:08:10]>> Yeah. Oh well, look, thank you, Phil.

[00:08:12]And I hope it all goes well on Sunday night. All the best.

[00:08:15]Take care.

[00:08:16]>> Oh, it will be great. It will be fantastic, honestly. It will be the one of the best nights I've ever had, to be honest. I mean, I've been many, many nights, but this is this is going to be completely different.

[00:08:25]>> Special, yeah. Okay, enjoy.

[00:08:26][clears throat] Thanks, Phil.

[00:08:28]>> Thanks, Phil.

[00:08:28]>> Thanks, lads. Bye-bye.