“I won a case of Spam and some rice, and that was it, I was into sumo,” Mr. Wily said in a 2016 interview with Sherdog, a YouTube channel dedicated to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
In the same interview, Mr. Wily also discussed why he was billed as Teila Tuli for his U.F.C. match. “They didn’t want me to come with such an English name,” he said. “So 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.”
He added, smiling, that he hoped the admission wouldn’t send bill collectors his way.
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.
He left the sport in 1989, citing knee injuries, and pivoted to mixed martial arts. Mr. Wily fought in the first Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 1993, where he lost by a technical knockout.
He first appeared on television in a 1982 episode of “Magnum, P.I.,” and he made several guest appearances on shows that included “Marker” and “North Shore.”
His survivors include his wife, Halona Wily, and two children.
In a 2014 interview with Hawaii News Now, Mr. Wily discussed his appreciation for his role in “Hawaii Five-0,” and what the experience meant to him.
“It’s the best job in the world — you get to play Hollywood but be right here in Hawaii,” he said. “Home.”
