‘Much Happier At Featherweight’ – Nico Carrillo Recaps Statement Win Over Sitthichai At ONE Fight Night 30

Nico “King of the North” Carrillo has officially arrived in the talent-laden featherweight Muay Thai division – and he did so in brutal fashion.

On April 4 at ONE Fight Night 30: Kryklia vs. Knowles on Prime Video, the Scottish powerhouse stopped #5-ranked contender Sitthichai “Killer Kid” Sitsongpeenong with a vicious second-round knockout, stunning a packed house at Bangkok’s Lumpinee Stadium.

It was a massive bounce-back performance for Carrillo, who had rocketed to the top of the bantamweight Muay Thai division before losing to Thai-Algerian prodigy Nabil Anane in his bid for the interim World Title.

Now up a weight class at featherweight, the 26-year-old was given no easy task in his new division. After all, Sitthichai is a legendary eight-time Kickboxing and Muay Thai World Champion who has long been a mainstay of ONE’s featherweight upper echelon.

Given his opponent’s numerous accolades and mountain of high-level experience, Carrillo knew he was in for a tough challenge. He spoke to onefc.com after the victory:

“I absolutely expected [Sitthichai] to be durable. He’s been an absolute boss, and he’s rarely ever been stopped in his full career. I think that [Marat] Grigorian stopped him, and that was about it. So no, I wasn’t surprised.

“That cut [on Sitthichai’s head] happened with some big elbows, though, and I was surprised when he was still standing because I threw the kitchen sink with some of them.”

Indeed, Carrillo spent much of the two-round encounter punishing the Thai icon with devastating punches, thudding kicks, and piercing elbows – strikes that many men would have fallen to much earlier.

“King of the North” said he was also impressed by Sitthichai’s crafty defense, which forced him to dig deeper into his own back of tricks to find the knockout:

“I was surprised at his movement on the back foot. And he was pretty good at getting away from those power shots when I was going in straight lines. When I was hammering that right hand on him, it didn’t land much.

“That’s where I started having to cut angles and things like that. I was really surprised at how quick he was and how elusive he was.”

Carrillo appeared to be reinvigorated, heavily muscled, and supremely powerful at featherweight.

Now that he’s competing 10 pounds higher, at his more natural weight class, he’s been able to enjoy himself more during training camp. He also looks even more dangerous in the ring – a terrifying proposition for the entire featherweight Muay Thai division:

“I keep saying the same stuff in interviews, but it’s important to just have fun. Just enjoying the process is a big part of that, and just enjoying Muay Thai again because fight camps were a little bit torturous for me.

“So now I’m just enjoying a full fight camp, loving the sport again. It’s really important for me. I feel much happier at featherweight.”

Carrillo Says Win Over Sitthichai Was Biggest Of His Career

For Nico Carrillo, defeating Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong was about more than just beating a top-five ranked contender. It was about erasing the memory of his crushing defeat to Nabil Anane.

Following ONE Fight Night 30, he admitted that he was nervous about the possibility of suffering back-to-back losses:

“I was confident, but I was scared. I was just so scared of losing again, more than anything else, to be honest.”

“King of the North” has already beaten some of Muay Thai’s most beloved and respected athletes since joining ONE Championship, including former longtime ONE World Champion Nong-O Hama and multiple-time World Champion Muangthai PK Saenchai.

But having been knocked out by Anane just a few months ago, Carrillo said that his triumph over Sitthichai is now his most significant accomplishment:

“This victory means more to me than any victory I’ve had in my full career. This is bigger than when I beat Nong-O, when I beat Muangthai. This is bigger than any of that because I came back from a loss, and I was fighting some serious demons in January. I completely lost myself. I lost a lot of confidence, and I’m so grateful to ONE Championship – [they] allowed me to come back, to right that wrong.

“I’m just so happy and pleased with myself that I kept all the demons at bay, all the voices in my head that were scared, and I didn’t want to feel that feeling again. In order to see the sun rise again, you need to get out of the shade.”