Luke Littler produced a stunning fightback to beat Mike de Decker 10-9 and reach the Grand Slam of Darts quarter-finals.

The 17-year-old was 9-7 down and on the brink of exiting the tournament, but won three consecutive legs to secure a meeting with Jermaine Wattimena.

Littler had taken a 2-0 lead but De Decker got on level terms, then seemed to have the momentum as the match wore on.

The Belgian built an 8-4 cushion but Littler rallied with an 11-dart leg.

De Decker had a chance to win with a checkout of 170, but missed the bullseye before Littler squared the match at 9-9.

In the deciding leg Littler held his nerve and nailed treble 18, double 16, to seal victory and a place in the last eight.

“I don’t know if I enjoyed that. I’ve got to feel for Mike. I didn’t think I was in the game, but I know I can always switch that gear,” Littler told Sky Sports.

“Early on I was at my normal pace but towards the end I was taking an extra second, and that helped me. I might have to throw like that from now on.

“I didn’t think I could overturn the deficit [in the final session]. I just can’t believe it.”

Earlier in Wolverhampton, Wattimena progressed after winning a 10-9 thriller of his own against Dimitri van den Bergh, while Gian van Veen cruised to a 10-2 win over Ryan Joyce.

Interim ONE strawweight champion Jarred Brooks is set to move up to flyweight for his next fight scheduled against Reece McLaren at the upcoming ONE Fight Night 26 card, which is scheduled on Dec. 6 from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

ONE Championship officials confirmed the pairing to MMA Fighting on Thursday.

It’s an interesting move for Brooks after he held the ONE strawweight title but lost the belt following an illegal slam delivered to Joshua Pacio back in March. Rather than get an immediate rematch, Brooks ended claiming an interim strawweight title by taking out Gustavo Balart by rear naked choke in his next outing in August.

Now Brooks moves up to flyweight where ONE currently doesn’t have a champion following Demetrious Johnson announcing his retirement from the sport in September. He will still hold onto the ONE interim strawweight title.

Since moving to ONE Championship, Brooks has gone 5-1 overall with his only loss coming from that disqualification.

As for McLaren, the 33-year-old veteran is a mainstay in ONE dating back to 2015 when he made his debut for the promotion. A perennial contender throughout his career, McLaren has gone 3-1 in his past four fights with hopes that he can take out Brooks and potentially put his name in the hat to compete for the vacant flyweight title.

ONE Fight Night 26 goes down on Dec. 6 from Thailand with more fights expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

LUKE LITTLER refused to celebrate despite producing an epic comeback to move a step closer to lifting the Grand Slam of Darts this weekend.

The Nuke, 17, maintained his 100 per cent record on his debut appearance as he survived a match dart to knock out Mike De Decker from the last 16 in Wolverhampton.

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The Warrington teen came from 8-4 down to win 10-9 in a last-leg decider in the West Midlands.

And he will now take on Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena, who survived EIGHT match darts as he overcame Dimitri Van Den Bergh 10-9 earlier in the evening.

But after booking his spot in the final eight with double eight, Littler looked almost embarrassed to go through as he shook his head and held up his hands in apology.

Littler – who won six of the last seven legs – will take part in a fifth TV major quarter-final.

He said: “The crowd were amazing. I feel for Mike. Personally myself, I didn’t think I was in the game.

“I know I can always switch that gear.

“I threw at my normal pace. And then I was taking one second to release it and that helped.

“I may have to throw like that from now on. I know I have it in me. I cannot believe this.”

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De Decker, 28, is the World Grand Prix champion and is enjoying the year of his life but he lost his bottle in the key moments against the Boy Wonder.

Coming into the contest, Littler’s TV average this year was more than 100 and that highlights the incredible standard he has set in his first season as a professional player.

The Nuke – who was serenaded by the crowd – won the Bull backstage and led 3-2 at the first TV break.

De Decker then turned it around to go 8-4 ahead and even had darts to go 9-5 up.

But he had his wobbles late on – including when he went for the bull to secure a Big Fish finale – and Littler ramped up the pressure and enjoyed some luck to record one of his best wins of 2024.

Gian van Veen crushed Ryan Joyce 10-2 with a 106.45 average, seven 180s and a success rate of more than 50 per cent on his doubles earlier on in the night.

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England head coach Borthwick has made four changes from the side beaten by Australia in their last outing, including the reintroduction of full-back Freddie Steward and scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet.

George says both players are “frothing” at the prospect of facing South Africa.

“They are ready to take their opportunity because of all the work they have put in off the field,” he added.

“They have trained brilliantly and the nice thing is they are not coming in with one or two caps. They have played at international level and they are frothing at the bit to get involved.

“Whenever that ball goes in the air, the expectation is to catch the ball. Freddie [Steward] retrieves more ball for us than anyone and he is excellent in that area.

“The South African gameplan lends itself to putting the ball in the air a bit more, but there is no better man to have back there.”

England have not won at home since March when they beat Ireland in the Six Nations and George says the hosts need a result to match their performances.

“We always feel pressure to win,” said the 34-year-old.

“We know that the fans want a win and we want to bring that for them. They have been brilliant and we have spoken a lot about this connection with the fans, but I’m aware the performance only goes so far and we need to bring the result.

“I want the Allianz to believe we can win because we believe we can win.”

On the day he debuted in the UFC, Bo Nickal was already one of the most accomplished wrestlers to set foot in the octagon as a three-time NCAA Division I National Champion and he’d like to see more of those athletes join him in the sport.

Ahead of his return at UFC 309, Nickal revealed his hopes that more high-level wrestlers start making the transition to fighting like 2020 Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson, who became a primary training partner for Jon Jones as he prepared for his fight against Stipe Miocic on Saturday.

“I would love that,” Nickal said during UFC 309 media day. “I would love to see as many high-level wrestlers as possible transition over to MMA. I think that the last decade or so, we really haven’t had the best collegiate wrestlers move into MMA. You have guys that have had success but we haven’t had the best of the best.

“So guys like Gable Steveson, it would amazing to see him transition over. I think that American collegiate style wrestling would take over the sport in short order.”

In addition to his comments about wrestlers making the move to MMA, Nickal also addressed his long layoff between fights and why he was OK with taking time off between his appearance at UFC 300 and returning at UFC 309 where he faces Paul Craig. Nickal also discussed Khamzat Chimaev’s recent win over Robert Whittaker and how far he has to go before he could potentially face the Chechen mauler.