“I was drilling the left elbow” – Nico Carrillo breaks down his marvelous knockout sequence over the iconic Nong-O

Combat sports athletes are always on the lookout to become the next big thing in their discipline of choice and within ONE Championship, no other fighter took that to heart than rising Scottish Muay Thai star Nico Carrillo.

After officially revealing his signing with the promotion in late March, Carrillo put together strong back-to-back performances through TKO victories over Furkan Kurabag and Muangthai PK Saenchai in April and June, respectively.

His biggest challenge would come next at ONE Friday Fights 46 this past December 22 as he faced Muay Thai legend Nong-O Hama in the latter’s home country.

Carrillo certainly felt the power and accuracy that Nong-O possessed early on, but he rallied back in the second round to land a vicious left elbow that knocked out the Thai hero.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Carrillo happily dissected his performance:

“You’ve seen in the first round and the second round as well, I nearly had him out there with my hands. I was drilling the left elbow and I caught his leg a few times and handed him with the right elbow. I didn't think the left elbow would knock him out like that.”

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What might be next for Nico Carrillo?

In the eyes of English Muay Thai star Liam Harrison, whoever came out on top between Carrillo and Nong-O should have the next shot at Jonathan Haggerty’s ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world championship.

ONE Championship has yet to confirm whether the Scotsman will have another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity heading his way very shortly - this time for gold.

One thing going for Carrillo is that no other fighter in the division has the amount of momentum he has and that might be the case that he could make for himself with ONE Championship brass.