Stephen Bunting believes Luke Littler can end his career as the greatest darts player of all time, even if he doesn’t win as many titles as the legendary Phil Taylor.

Littler had been on course for a clean sweep of the 2026 ranking events before a shock exit at the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam.

The world No 1 had won the first six premier events of the season after following his World Championship triumph at Alexandra Palace in January with the World Masters, UK Open, Premier League, World Cup of Darts and World Matchplay.

Littler was hoping to add the World Series of Darts Finals, World Grand Prix, European Championship, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals trophies to complete a historic monopoly over the year - but lost to Jonny Clayton in the quarter-finals.

Despite defeat, many experts are already predicting the 19-year-old becoming the greatest player the sport has ever seen - including Bunting.

"I do," the 41-year-old told when asked if he thinks Littler can end his career as the greatest darts player ever. "I think he's got a lot more to give the sport."

However, Bunting believes darts legend Taylor, who retired in 2018, will still have the edge over Littler when it comes to the number of titles won.

"I think he'll win a lot more world titles, but I don't think he'll win as many as Phil," he said. "The standard of play is a lot better than in Phil's day. Phil did dominate.

"But [Littler] is someone who has changed our sport. He's brought the [age] demographic of the sport down. If you ask people who a darts player is, they all say Luke Littler, that's how powerful his name is."

Bunting did admit, however, that he would rather leave the debate over who is the best to Taylor and Littler themselves.

"I think certainly Luke's ceiling is phenomenal," he continued. "Based on his ceiling he is the best player in the world. Phil 'The Power' Taylor won 16 World Championships - you can't take that away from Phil.

"If Phil tells me he's the best darts player in the world, he's the best darts player in the world. I'll leave it for them to discuss. I'd be happy to win one or two world titles, but Luke is smashing it already.

"He's playing fantastic, won another European Tour, so he's pretty unstoppable. But there's a couple of players behind him who can also have high ceilings as well, so on the day, who knows what can happen."

Speaking on podcast, Bunting addressed where he was asked whether it has gone too far.

"A loud whistle really does throw you off and I've had it in my career. It's not nice and it's off-putting when you're throwing for a double," said Bunting. "It's the minority."

Goodbye Peter Griffin, hello Titanium

Bunting will be competing at the World Grand Prix where he will be looking to go one step further after making the semi-finals twice previously.

"Definitely," Bunting said when asked if he can win the title in Leicester. "Hopefully I can go in with some really good form, these next few tournaments push me there with some confidence.

"The Grand Prix is a double-off format, I really enjoy hitting my doubles. It's going to be a great tournament. It's brilliant Sky Sports covers it and hopefully I can put on a good show for the fans and get the title."

As well as watching Bunting in full flow, fans at Leicester's Mattioli Arena will be excited when he walks out to his song 'Titanium'.

"My son's favourite song," Bunting said when asked about his song change. "It was an easy one to pick. I wanted to get away from the Peter Griffin and the 'Bird is the Word' song. Everyone's been really positive towards it.

"It's one of the greatest walk-on songs in my opinion. It's really a special moment when I'm doing the actions and they're singing it back to me. It makes me feel so happy.

"Obviously, we're up there to do a job and play darts, but the walk-on and the crowd takes the pressure away and it relaxes me when I've done the walk-on.

"When the crowd are singing 'let's go Bunting-mental', they really are my 12th man. To be able to use the crowd as a power, it's really important, they're a huge part of my game and it's nice to be able to give something back to them."

Bunting opens up on dark side of social media and gambling in 'Bulletproof'

Bunting spoke to ahead of the launch of his new book 'Bulletproof', with the autobiography's title a nod to the lyrics in 'Titanium' and his nickname - but also about his battle to refuse to give up his darts.

"Sometimes it can be really difficult," Bunting admitted when asked about the hate he can receive on social media. "I'm lucky I've got a great team around me, a brilliant family and some unbelievable fans and they've really helped me through a little bit of a dark time.

"It came off the back of the 'people's champion' debacle, which was taken well out of context. I've put that all behind me now. It's about rebuilding again. The confidence is high, even though the results are not going my way at the minute, I'm sure that's about to change.

"It was important to show everyone, this was a life story, so, everything needs to be in there," he said. "The gambling debts were a big part of my life.

"When times were low, I'd lock myself away, and I'd be on my phone gambling. It was a horrible place to be in. I was in a rut and thankfully, sports psychologist, hypnotist and everything about that really helped me and helped me look at it in a positive way, even though somethings may not be positive, still taking a positive spin on it.

"Gambling was a way out at the time but I was able to put that to bed and if one little bit out of this book can help anyone in this situation, the book's a winner."

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