It’s fair to say that darts isn’t a sport where tempers and emotions get out of control too often. It’s non-contact and players are theoretically playing against the board.
With big crowds though, the isolation on the stage and occasional hostile atmosphere we do see players have heated moments on the oche – sometimes even leading to bust-ups!
This doesn’t just stay on the oche though, when players are not happy you really hear about it in some of the post game interviews.
We’ve assembled some of the most HEATED darts interviews where even the best players of all time have had some absolute head loss moments 🤬
Here’s 7 of the best…
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Adrian Lewis Calls Gerwyn Price a ‘Nobody’
Adrian Lewis has had his fair share of heated exchanges with players during his playing career and recently admitted that his ‘mindset’ wasn’t right during his prime years.
Related – Adrian Lewis thinks he should have won more in darts but didn’t have the right ‘mindset’
During the 2016 World Matchplay, one exchange in particular was with another player who has been known for the more than occasional clash with other players in Gerwyn Price.
Price was relatively new to professional darts but Lewis wasn’t happy about a tweet made by Price prior to the game and tensions on the stage led to Lewis blasting the Welshman following the game.
“He’s a nobody, simple as that”
Fair to say he is a somebody in darts now though having joined Adrian Lewis as a world champion…
James Wade SLAMS Wayne Mardle
James Wade doesn’t have as many on stage bust-ups as Lewis but his post game interviews are often explosive.
Last year he blasted the PDC for having a ‘group of favourites’ who they look after very well – of which Wade feels he is not a part.
See more – James Wade’s unexpected RANT at 2024 World Matchplay
At the 2022 World Darts Championship though he got more personal.
After reaching the semi-finals, Wade went on to say he loved proving the critics wrong, especially Wayne Mardle.
He further went on to say he’d “won more in two weeks than he did his entire career”.
Worth noting that James Wade does suffer from bipolar disorder so his interviews shouldn’t be scrutinised too much but this one has had more views on YouTube than many tournament finals with fans just loving the drama of it.
Phil Taylor Calls Out Kim Huybrechts Bottle
Coming towards the tail end of his career at the 2017 World Darts Championship, Phil Taylor was still making headlines and it wasn’t just on the oche.
He went into the interview sending a warning to all the playing field but singled out his next opponent in particular which was Kim Huybrechts.
“I know exactly what he’s going to do, I know his tactics, I know what he’s going to do and I’m going to shut his face. Let’s see if Kim Huybrechts has got the bottle now, let’s see if he’s up for a scrap because he’s going to get one…”
People speculate this was just Taylor playing mindgames but it may have worked as he went on to win the match 4-3.
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Michael van Gerwen Says Peter Wright “Talks Crap”
MVG is a player that fans can dislike on stage as he’s often been accused of putting opponents off but during interviews he is one player who you rarely see bad mouth another player.
In recent years his interviews always seem mature and he tends to give opponents credit but even he gets caught up in the drama sometimes.
The most recent was actually this year when he had some choice words to say about Peter Wright.
“Every year at the Worlds he talks so much nonsense. He’s always allowed to talk crap. No one takes him serious on the tour as well because he’s not allowed an opinion at home as well”
It was only a snippet but definitely unexpected and In fairness this one wasn’t a ‘heated’ interview like the article title suggests but it still felt worthy of an inclusion.
Gerwyn Price Calls Crowd Pathetic
Arguably one of the most controversial players of all time, Gerwyn Price is known for getting into heated moments with players and already appeared on this list earlier as an antagonist.
2025 Price seems to have won a lot of crowds over during big events but that is a complete opposite to previous years where he’s been one of the most booed and heckled players almost everywhere he went.
During an infamous interview a few years ago, Price gave an interview to Sky Sport on the stage where he basically called the crowd out while they were standing behind him.
Whatever your opinion of Price, he has some blockbuster moments on stage and then some of his ‘antics’ just add to the entertainment factor that is Iceman!
Gary Anderson Threatens To Leave Darts
Gary Anderson is a fiery Scotsman and often isn’t hesitant to let his feelings be known.
He blasted pundits this year for bringing up ‘talks of retirement’ and recently called the younger generation of darts players boring.
Read more – Gary Anderson labels young darts players BORING and pleads for Adrian Lewis return
Four years ago he had a match against the notoriously slow Mensur Suljovic and believed he was using ‘tactics’ during the game to slow it down even more than usual.
Despite winning, Anderson was not happy about it and threatened to walk away from darts as a result.
Anderson is a natural player with one of the smoothest throws in darts and genuinely just loves to play the game so he likely doesn’t like to play Mensur even at the best of times!
Phil Taylor FUMES at Wayne Mardle for ‘Inappropriate’ Question
By far the most heated interview of all time was Phil Taylor clashing with Wayne Mardle in the studio at the 2017 World Darts Championship.
This is the second time Mardle has appeared on this list and there was also an interview we left off where Gary Anderson also rants about him during an interview so he really does seem to rub players up the wrong way as a commentator and pundit doesn’t he!
On this occasion, he asked why Taylor didn’t quite play the same against Kevin Painter which led to Taylor saying:
“Of all people, you shouldn’t ask me a question like that”
He said that in jest but then seemed to get genuinely annoyed with Mardle and when pressed about being put off, Taylor came back with one of the best responses ever saying “he didn’t put me off, I won 4-0”.
1.2m views for an interview shows how much this blew up.
We like to watch the highlights at the oche but sometimes you secretly love it when there’s a bit of drama in darts and this list provides plenty of repeat offenders 👀
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