“It was me versus me” - Nico Carrillo says he was only battling himself in showdown with Thai legend Sitthichai

Nico Carrillo wasn't just fighting one of the greatest strikers of all time in his last match, he was also battling his inner thoughts and emotions.

The Scottish knockout monster admitted he was in the doldrums when he fought Thai legend Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong at ONE Fight Night 30 following his nasty knockout defeat to Nabil Anane at ONE 170 earlier in the year.

In an interview with Conor Malone, Carrillo said he lost a bit of his trademark confidence when he stared at the ceiling against Anane in their match for the ONE interim bantamweight Muay Thai world title.

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Carrillo explained:

"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."

Anane stopped Carrillo's four-fight winning streak in their match in January, and 'King of the North' was in desperation mode when he fought Sitthichai in April.

Carrillo left his brawling style from his earlier wins and put on a calculated offense against the multi-time Muay Thai and kickboxing world champion.

Using his elbows to set up his attacks, Carrillo dropped Sitthichai with a gnarly left hook before ending the Thai legend with another hook to the body 2:20 into the second.

Check out the entire interview below:

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Nico Carrillo reveals he almost quit Muay Thai until ONE Championship came calling

Nico Carrillo nearly went into MMA if not for that one phone call he received from ONE Championship.

The Scottish brawler tore up the European Muay Thai scene and was already preparing his grappling chops to make the move to MMA.

ONE Championship, however, gave the call that pushed Carrillo to the sport's global stage.

In the same interview with Conor Malone, Carrillo said:

"I was already a three-time world champion. I'd beat everybody in the domestic European scene–only thing for me left to do was get to ONE Championship, and they just weren't giving me the call. And so I started wrestling and doing stuff like that, and then I got the call from ONE Championship, and it was like, right, back to Muay Thai, what I love to do. And then it was just up from there."

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Edited by Jigyanshushri Mahanta