Luke Humphries has hit back at comments on social media that he lacks "stage aura" and that he is "giving in" to world No 1 Luke Littler.
Humphries clinched the Belgian Darts Open on Sunday evening with victory over Jonny Clayton.
It was the world No 2's first stage title since September and went some way to silencing criticism for his recent lack of silverware.
Humphries took umbrage to one particular post on social media with Charlie Murphy, a darts content creator with more than 372k followers on TikTok and 86k on Instagram who had given an interview to Online Betting Guide (OLBG) questioning whether Humphries was missing "stage aura or confidence" of recent years.
"I think he is the one that could end up missing out on the top four [in Premier League Darts] unless he goes on a charge," Murphy said in a YouTube video on OLBG's channel.
"Is he capable of it? I think he might have lost a little bit of confidence.
"He's never been full of aura, but he doesn't seem to have that stage aura or confidence that he used to have when he was winning.
"I know you get that with winning, and he is not winning that much right now. I am worried about him."
Humphries, who admitted he was particularly disappointed as he got along well with Murphy, dismissed the comments and said his priority when playing darts isn't having "aura".
"All this stuff about I've got no aura, I don't really care about having aura," Humphries told Oche180 in response to the comments.
"I'm not up there to have aura. I'm up there to win dart games, to win money, to set my family up.
"What even is aura? What is it, really? It's a made-up word it's not something that anybody has - it's fake."
Murphy has since publicly apologised for any hurt caused by his comments, explaining that he had no editing control and if he had, he would have likely not published the video.
It wasn't only the "aura" comments that Humphries was disappointed with. He also felt that comments that he was falling a distance away from current world champion Littler were "disrespectful".
Murphy had added: "Not that he is going to do a Peter Wright and drop down the rankings. I just think it is like he is giving in to Luke Littler.
"Now that gap is just going to get bigger and bigger. I would probably say he is not the second best player in the world right now."
Humphries passionately explained that he doing his best to close that gap but stressed how difficult a player it is to get the better of Littler.
"It's more the disrespect that he [Murphy] showed, I don't really care if I'm not the second-best player in the world anymore," Humphries responded.
"It's just the way that he said, I give in to Luke [Littler] and I never give in to Luke, he's just a bloody good darts player.
"It's not like the other darts players give in to him [either], he's just really good and he's really hard to peg back.
"In the last three games I've played him it's all gone down to a last-leg decider or a last-set decider and I've pushed him all the way."
Humphries and Littler have played each other twice so far in the Premier League this season, with each Luke taking a narrow 6-5 win each.
However, Littler has taken two night wins and sits five points ahead of Humphries in the table with Clayton still at the top.
But on March 26 he will have the chance to carry his title momentum into the League as it goes to Berlin for night eight.
Night Eight of the BetMGM Premier League will take place in Berlin on Thursday March 26, as Littler begins his bid for a third nightly victory of 2026 against Stephen Bunting at the Uber Arena.
League leader Clayton will take on Josh Rock in the evening's opener, Humphries and Michael van Gerwen also go head-to-head, while Gerwyn Price takes on Gian van Veen for a place in the semi-finals.
Who will win this year's Premier League Darts? Luke Humphries will be defending his title and you can watch the action every single Thursday until May on Your Site. .
