NICO CARRILLO admits his world came crashing down when he came up short in his maiden ONE Championship title fight.
The Scot looked to become the interim ruler of ONE‘s bantamweight division in January against Algeria's Nabil Anane.
But his hopes of winning ONE gold were temporarily dashed thanks to a first-round KO loss, his first defeat in nearly six years.
And the stunning loss shook the ‘King of the North' to his core, an admission he's strong enough to make ahead of his ring return at ONE Fight Night 30 in Bangkok.
In an exclusive interview with SunSport, the 26-year-old admitted: “I'm not gonna lie.
“Everybody knows me to be a mentally strong person and I talk about failure and [that] it's part of the journey and stuff.
“But my world ended. And it won't start again until I get back into that win column. And that's it, that's the god's honest truth.”
Carrillo's devastating defeat was the byproduct of the most extreme weight cut of his career, which he was forced to make as his body had outgrown the bantamweight division.
And it's prompted a move up to featherweight, something he now realises he should've done earlier.
He said: “Looking back on the last three or four fights that I've had, I've realised how miserable I've been.”
Carrillo feels like a new man at 155lbs and said: “I actually enjoyed the process of enjoying training, learning every day, trying to get better at Muay Thai and just focusing on training.
“And not focusing on a set of scales and not focusing on, ‘How many grams of carbs and chicken do I need to eat today?'
“And not focusing on, ‘Oh, I wonder what I need to do to get me just through this session'
“But it only gets me through the session because after that, I'm miserable again and I'm angry all day because I'm starving all day.
“Now moving up the way, I'm enjoying the process and being able to eat a bit more, it's made me realise how f***ing miserable I've been for so long.
“And I'm just happy now that I'm back to being a happy fighter. Because I've always said, ‘A happy fighter is a dangerous fighter.'
“And when I look back on it, I wasn't happy there for a couple of years.”
Carrillo has opted to jump straight back into the fire following the biggest defeat of his career, taking on decorated kickboxer Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong on Saturday.
And fuelled by the devastation and pain of his first ONE loss, he's adopted a “kill-or-be-killed” mentality for his ring return.
“I think it's just going to be such an amazing fight for the fans,” he said of his clash with the Thai titan.
“There's going to be no slow start for me this time. I've learned my lesson.
“So, it's either gonna be a three-round war or, hopefully, a ‘Knockout of the Night' knockout.”
