Who can stop Luke Littler’s dominance? Paul Nicholson names Littler’s next big rival, but he’s not even on the PDC Tour yet

I feel for those who’d requested me who can stop Luke Littler about 12 months in the past, I might have mentioned Luke Humphries.

And though it’s not been a nasty 12 months for Cool Hand, it’s grow to be even extra apparent in 2026 that Littler is working on a unique planet in comparison with everybody else.

The Nuke can clearly lose the odd sport right here and there in shorter codecs, but relating to the main televised tournaments, it’s grow to be an more and more uncommon incidence.

Even extra fear for everybody else, he’s nonetheless bettering.

As issues stand, the likes of Humphries, Gian van Veen, Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen will probably be lucky to win one or two majors between them per season.

It’s acquired to the level the place his rivals are relieved when he takes a break, resembling throughout Players Championship occasions and a few of the occasions on the European and World Series Tours.

They are the solely occasions when everybody else thinks they’ve acquired a superb likelihood of successful one thing!

He’s a once-in-a-generation dart participant doing issues different greats can’t, which is why we’re placing him in the peak Phil Taylor and prime MVG bracket.

It’s humorous to suppose Mike de Decker and Ritchie Edhouse received their main titles in Littler’s maiden season on the tour. They snuck into the winners’ circle simply in the nick of time earlier than Littler hit full stride and now these days appear a hell of a very long time in the past now.

So if no person at present on the scene goes to have the ability to finish his dominance, who can?

Who is Littler’s next big rival?

The participant that would probably problem him in the next 5 years is in the junior ranks.

They are solely simply beginning to come by way of but we’re seeing extra resounding proof today that younger kids are retaining greater ranges than ever.

Even larger ranges than Littler did when he was between the ages of 13 and 15.

Now there’s loads of potential stars on the market but the one we’re getting most enthusiastic about is Mitchell Lawrie.

At the age of 15 he’s already the WDF number one, he wins just about wherever he goes and has already made a Lakeside remaining, which is one thing Littler did not do.

Littler performed at the 2022 Lakeside Championship and misplaced – albeit to Richard Veenstra’s Lakeside document common – whereas Lawrie acquired all the method to the remaining earlier than shedding to Jimmy van Schie.

We knew again then Littler was an especially promising younger participant but I doubt anybody thought that inside 18 months he’d be the most talked about participant in the world.

So if Mitchell Lawrie is on the identical roadmap as Littler, then we’re in for a spectacular rivalry in the coming few years.

I feel he’s eligible for the Development Tour next 12 months, as a result of he’s 15 every now and then we’ll have extra of a sign of what he can do in a PDC surroundings – but proper now, the indicators are trying good.

We all love an England v Scotland rivalry and we’ve had some crackers in the previous resembling Bristow v Jocky in the Eighties but Littler v Lawrie will probably be probably off the charts by way of the requirements they’ll be throwing at one another.

It’s unbelievable to suppose that even if Lawrie does comply with Littler’s footsteps, by the time he’s able to problem for PDC majors, Littler could possibly be a 3, 4 or five-time world champion and he’d nonetheless solely be in his early 20s!

They are nonetheless comparatively shut in age so by the time they’re each of their 30s, who is aware of what number of main titles they’ll each have racked up.

What was Littler doing at 15 in comparison with Lawrie?

Admittedly, all this discuss of Lawrie turning into a real rival in a number of years continues to be speculative but we can have a look at knowledge to see how he compares to the place Littler was at 15.

And it’s quite a bit fairer than once we attempt to examine gamers from fully totally different generations once they had been utilizing totally different gear and developing towards decrease calibre of opposition.

So, proper now, Lawrie is the WDF primary and sizzling favorite to win the Lakeside title at the age of 15.

That alone is one thing Littler didn’t get near doing.

Now let’s have a look at the averages.

When it involves recorded averages in tournaments, Lawrie’s highest is an unbelievable 112.73, whereas Littler’s at 15 was simply over 100.

In whole, Lawrie has already managed 22 recorded averages over 100 in comparison with the one which Littler had achieved.

That got here in the quarter-finals of the JDC World Championship that 12 months when averaging 100.2 so it’s truthful to say he hadn’t yet popped.

I need to stress that ‘recorded’ is the key phrase right here. They each would have averaged over 100 in tournaments not coated by Dart Connect but even so, this can be a truthful comparability to point out simply how promising Mitchell Lawrie actually is.

When will Lawrie meet Littler?

I’m hoping Lawrie takes his time and takes a leaf out of Beau Greaves’ guide.

She took every step at a time regardless of all the stress and hype round her to hurry into the PDC and begin competing towards the males.

Now have a look at her.

She’s plotted her personal affected person route and continues to show you don’t have to leap in at the deep finish simply because everybody else and the media is impatient!

He would not need to go to Q School and get a tour card instantly.

He can simply focus on this stage for one more 12 months, get pleasure from the Development Tour and likewise present everybody what he can do in the Modus Super Series – identical to Littler did.

Those experiences and achievements had been so instrumental in him constructing himself as a participant and I imagine Lawrie has to do the identical.

Now don’t get me flawed, there are different gifted kids resembling Jack Johnson, Kaya Baysal and Archie Self.

But proper now based mostly on all the proof in entrance of us, I feel Mitchell is the pure rival for Littler. And we received’t have to attend too lengthy to see it unfold.