Stephen Bunting breaks down in tears over backlash to “people’s champion” comment

Stephen Bunting broke down in tears during an emotion press conference following his second round win at the World Darts Championship on Saturday.

Bunting swept aside Indian qualifier Nitin Kumar in straight sets to book his place in the post-Christmas action at Ally Pally, but was visibly emotional during his post-match interview.

The world number four was left upset by the backlash to his comments following his first round win over Sebastian Bialecki, in which he described himself as “the people’s champion”.

Bunting revealed he had received a torrent of negative messages in the subsequent days and insisted the comments were simply a reference to those used by Sky Sports and the PDC.

“I look at social media and I’ve had some stick,” said Bunting. “I made a comment in in the media saying I was the people’s champion but that was literally a comment that was from what Sky have said, what the PDC have said, it wasn’t me saying I’m the people’s champion.

“I was just talking about what was said and yeah I’ve had a lot of stick about that. Listen, I’m not the people’s champion, I turn up I’ll try my best to win any game, I’ll give 110%.

“The fans have been unbelievable, I feel a presence. I feel the support online, but sometimes you can look too much at social media and yeah, there’s been quite a few negatives.

“I’ve had quite a few emails as well but I need to rise above that.

“People online are fickle. There’s a lot of negativity.

“You see the crowd in there tonight, they’re proper dart fans. They know what I’m about.

“I like to give back to the fans through my YouTube, TikTok and everything I do. If if they see me in a pub or they see me in Tesco or a shopping centre or whatever, I’ll always give time to the fans.

“They’re so important and they’ve been a massive part of my career so far.

“I never ever shy away from my fans and I I’ll stand by it. I still think I’ve got the biggest fan base in darts. I’m lucky and you saw it tonight.”

Bunting, who dropped only two legs in thrashing Kumar, will now face James Hurrell in the Last 32 of the £1m showpiece after the Christmas break.