Scottish knockout machine Nico Carrillo admits he “was fighting demons” after losing to Nabil Anane in Bangkok

Hiding behind his celebration, Nico Carrillo admitted he was in the doldrums heading into his featherweight return in ONE Championship.

Carrillo started his redemption arc when he folded the legendary Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong in their featherweight Muay Thai matchup at the stacked ONE Fight Night 30 this past weekend at Lumpinee Stadium.

The victory was a much-needed reprieve for Carrillo, who was coming off a devastating technical knockout loss to Nabil Anane for the ONE interim bantamweight Muay Thai world title at ONE 170 in January this year.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Nico Carrillo detailed the mental state he was in before he took on Sitthichai in Bangkok.

He said:

"You know, after the loss to Nabil, I was fighting demons. I lost a bit of confidence. I was thinking to myself 'Is this all been just luck? Everything I done here, has it just been luck?'"

Carrillo was on a strong run of form when he took on Anane at ONE 170 for his first shot at ONE Championship gold.

Riding a four-fight winning streak, with one win under featherweight and the latter three at bantamweight, Carrillo was beaming with confidence ahead of his fight against Anane.

The 6-foot-4 phenom, however, humbled Carrillo when he dropped 'King of the North' three times in the opening round for the TKO victory.

The defeat put a dark cloud over Carrillo's psyche, but the Scottish knockout machine quickly shook off the negativity the moment he stepped between the ropes against Sitthichai.

Carrillo was a man possessed and unloaded hellacious power on the eight-time kickboxing and Muay Thai world champion.

Building unstoppable momentum in the second, which included a crowd-pleasing knockdown, Carrillo ended Sitthichai's night with a brutal left hook to the liver blow for the knockout win.

Watch Carrillo's entire interview below:

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Nico Carrillo says KO win over Sitthichai came down to pure pressure

Nico Carrillo can always rely on his power to get the job done, but he knew he had to mix things up when he returned to featherweight against Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong.

In his in-ring interview with ONE Championship commentator Mitch Chilson, Carrillo said he heeded coach JP Gallacher's advice to keep the pressure on Sitthichai in the fight.

"JP just said volume. The first one was close, and they asked me how the power was, and I said the power’s fine. I just had to up the volume a little bit."