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\u201cI won a case of Spam and some rice, and that was it, I was into sumo,\u201d Mr. Wily said in a 2016 interview<\/a> with Sherdog, a YouTube channel dedicated to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.<\/p>\n In the same interview, Mr. Wily also discussed why he was billed as Teila Tuli for his U.F.C. match. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want me to come with such an English name,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I took Taylor and spelled it the way we spell it here in Polynesia, Teila, and used my middle name, Tuli, and got rid of Wily.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, smiling, that he hoped the admission wouldn\u2019t send bill collectors his way.<\/p>\n For two years, he competed in Japan as a sumo wrestler under the name Takamishu. He won several championships, eventually reaching the makushita division, the third-highest in the league, and he became the first wrestler born outside Japan to win a title match.<\/p>\n He left the sport in 1989, citing knee injuries, and pivoted to mixed martial arts. Mr. Wily fought in the first<\/a> Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 1993, where he lost by a technical knockout.<\/p>\n He first appeared on television in a 1982 episode of \u201cMagnum, P.I.,\u201d and he made several guest appearances on shows that included \u201cMarker\u201d and \u201cNorth Shore.\u201d<\/p>\n His survivors include his wife, Halona Wily, and two children.<\/p>\n