Joe Cullen fires back after being criticised for interview with Sky Sports' Abigail Davies
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Joe Cullen has clapped back at critics following his terse post-match interview with Sky Sports' Abigail Davies at the World Darts Championship. Despite a resounding 3-0 victory over Wessel Nijman, Cullen was noticeably curt with Davies and offered up mostly one-word responses. The 35-year-old progressed to the third round at Alexandra Palace after his commanding win against Nijman, who had been tipped by bookmakers as the favourite for their match.
'The Rockstar' - clearly irked by being underrated by many in the darts community - gave a somewhat cold shoulder to Davies during their interview. She had previously predicted his early exit in a Sporting Life column with Paul Nicholson, though Cullen's recent form perhaps justified said call after winning only three of his last 12 matches before Ally Pally.
At the subsequent press conference, Cullen addressed his performance and said: "I've struggled this year on the oche and off the oche so to find a performance like that, to be honest I've got you guys to thank because I don't think I would have played like that if I had read some of the nonsense that I read beforehand.
"Honestly, the media attention that Wessel's got, again, this is not a reflection on him, he seems like a fantastic kid, he's been caught up in a few things beforehand [referring to Nijman's match-fixing ban in 2020], but he's served his time and held his hands up like a lot haven't.
"So I think the way I've been treated, probably, with the media and things like that... I know, obviously, you guys have no control over the bookies, but I've been shown no respect. So I won't show respect to any of you guys tonight. I'm gonna go home, cheers.".
