Nathan Aspinall has made a ruthless joke at Luke Littler’s expense in the build-up to the World Grand Prix, though darts fans have their own theory as to why the ‘Asp’ made the comment.
Both Aspinall and Littler are in action at Leicester’s Mattioli Arena this week, against Ryan Searle and Rob Cross respectively, with £600,000 up for grabs as Luke Humphries looks to defend his first TV title.
Littler is out to stop the world No. 1 on his World Grand Prix debut but has been subjected to comments from a Premier League rival over his weight.
Aspinall was asked to name the current darts player in a photo shown to him of one of his rivals as a child. He was stumped when asked to name the young boy snapped in the cockpit of a plane. When he was given a clue that it would have been taken around 2013, Aspinall promptly replied with Humphries.
However, when informed that he was wrong and in fact Littler was the young boy in the photo, Aspinall responded by saying: “Luke Littler?!? What? Oh, I’ve never seen him so skinny, that’s the problem.”
Aspinall and the host both burst into laughter at the comment about Littler’s body, but fans have suggested that the 2023 World Matchplay champion may have been under the influence of alcohol at the time.
In a reply to the post on X (formerly known as Twitter) one fan @unitedwayne said: “Asp sounds like he’s 8-10 pints deep here.”
While @anonymous_darts added: “We need to keep Nathan Aspinall drunk at all costs.”
“I’m a big fella as well and I knew straight away that he’d (Humphries) have to lose some weight,” Manley told the Daily Star. “And look at Luke Humphries now, he looks good, he feels fit.
“I know he had a problem with anxiety and how to deal with pressure, but he’s come through that. Luke Littler, to me, just looks a big unit. If he isn’t careful and doesn’t look after himself, he won’t last long because of that. And it won’t look good. You want to look good.”
