“A blip on the road” - Nico Carrillo admits KO of Sitthichai erased the bitter emotion of his loss to Nabil Anane

Nico Carrillo knew he needed one emphatic win to escape the negativity following his first loss in ONE Championship. The Scottish knockout monster suffered a first-round knockout defeat against Nabil Anane for the ONE interim bantamweight Muay Thai world title at ONE 170 in January this year.

In an interview with Conor Malone, Carrillo said he was plunged into mental darkness following his shocking loss and used his subsequent match against Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong to get back on track.

Carrillo returned to the featherweight class at ONE Fight Night 30 and unleashed utter chaos to knock out one of the greatest strikers of all time.

'King of the North' admitted his win over the multi-time kickboxing and Muay Thai world champion shook off the negative emotions he suffered against Anane and brought him back up to his usual confident self.

Nico Carrillo said:

"It felt like there was a massive weight lifted off my shoulders because I wanted to prove to a lot of people that I was a shadow of myself, and that happened for certain reasons that we don't need to go into because I'm sure everybody already knows."

He added:

"I needed to remind everybody I am still one of the best fighters in the world. That was a blip on the road. I've learned from my mistakes."

Carrillo's win over Sitthichai pushed his ONE Championship record to 5-1 and slotted him as the fourth-ranked contender in the stacked featherweight Muay Thai class.

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Nico Carrillo recalls the mental struggle he had to go through heading into his fight against Sitthichai

Nico Carrillo's ONE Fight Night 30 matchup against Sitthichai meant more than just another win on his record.

In the same interview with Conor Malone, Carrillo detailed that he had to push through his self-imposed mental prison after he lost to Nabil Anane in January this year. He said:

"When I came back for that Sitthichai fight, I felt that that was my fight camp. It was me vs. me, because I was having to put to bed a lot of negative thoughts that I had. At the end of the day, I might come across as this really confident guy, but I was in a dark place after the Nabil fight, and I did lose a bit of confidence."

Carrillo added:

"And you know, the only way to gain confidence is by taking action, doing the thing you don't want to do, because your body wants to protect you."