“You grow from learning” - Nico Carrillo wants to become the ideal role model for Scotland’s next generation of fighters

Nico Carrillo believes he's in a position not only to achieve personal success, but also to help the younger generation of fighters who want to break into the global stage.

The knockout machine is possibly the best fighter from Scotland, and he believes his flawed experiences will be valuable lessons the younger fighters can learn from.

In an interview with Conor Malone, Carrillo said he tended to demand validation from strangers instead of working on himself in his chase for world title glory.

Nico Carrillo explained:

"Good. It's what I want. I want the next gen to look up to me and use me as an example of what they can be like and what not to be like. I was by no means perfect growing up. I done the exact same stuff as all the rest of the degenerates probably did."

He added:

"But like I said, in this circle of life, you need to learn. But learning only comes from experience, and I've experienced some bad stuff to realize that I didn't want to do it anymore. And that's the same as for anything in life, you know what I mean. You only grow from learning, so yeah."

Carrillo's shift in mindset eventually led him to the big leagues with ONE Championship.

'King of the North' holds a stellar 5-1 record in the promotion, with an absurd 100 percent finish rate.

Carrillo, who only lost to now-undisputed ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world champion Nabil Anane, is the number four contender in the stacked featherweight Muay Thai class after he knocked out Thai legend Sitthichai Sitsonpeenong at ONE Fight Night 30.

Watch Carrillo's entire interview below:

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Nico Carrillo says he's at a happier state fighting at his more natural featherweight class

Although Nico Carrillo did the most damage at the 145-pound bantamweight class, the Scottish knockout monster said he's happier at his more natural 155-pound featherweight division.

In the same interview with Conor Malone, the 5-foot-10 Carrillo said he was in a better and healthier shape when he returned to featherweight after competing at bantamweight from 2023 until January of 2025. He said:

"It's super exciting, mate. It's super, super exciting. It feels like there's new life in me now, because before, getting matched came with this big dread of weight cut."

Nico Carrillo added:

"So I would just link fighting to weight cutting, and that's when I said a happy fighter is a dangerous fighter, and I wasn't happy for so long there because I would go into fight camp and it would start well, and I was like, right, six weeks out, now I need to start cutting weight. And it's difficult. It's one of the hardest things in the world."