Teila Tuli

Bien pesado

Taylor Wily, también llamado Teila Tuli, no es solo conocido en el mundo de los deportes de contacto, como luchador de sumo o del UFC, sino también como actor en varias películas, entre ellas la famosa serie de televisión Hawaii Five-0. A continuación unos minutos de una entrevista donde recuerda su experiencia en la UFC

Taylor Wily, also known as Teila Tuli is an American actor and a former sumo wrestler and mixed martial artist. He is from Laie, Hawaii and is of Samoan descent. He is commonly known for his recurring role as Kamekona on Hawaii Five-0.

In March 1987, Wily was recruited by former sekiwake Takamiyama Daigorō, another Hawaiian, and joined Azumazeki stable, which Takamiyama had founded the previous year. He was given the shikona (sumo name) of Takamikuni. He was unbeaten in his first 14 official bouts, winning two consecutive yūshō or tournament championships. Weighing nearly 200 kg (440 lb.), he was one of the largest wrestlers in sumo. In March 1988, he was promoted to the third highest makushita division, and became the first foreign born wrestler to ever win the championship in that division.

After leaving sumo, he competed as Teila Tuli in the first bout of the UFC 1 in November 1993, held in Denver, Colorado. It was shown on pay-per-view. Despite heavily outweighing his opponent, he lost to Gerard Gordeau, the match being stopped after Tuli was kicked in the face causing the loss of a tooth. This was Tuli's only MMA fight.

Teila Tuli on being the first fight at UFC 1

—Taylor, it´s been 20 years now since that night in Denver, Colorado. What was that whole experience like for you?

—It was wild. When I look back at it now it was all a blessing. So blessing, I mean whoever knew it was gonna blow up like this. I think we all kind of knew. That´s why we did it. That´s why we risked it. But you know we knew it was big time stuff. I mean I was ready to go. I didn´t know I was gonna be on a plane back to Hawai. I mean I really thought I was coming back to champion of the world. That was my goal but there was something in the back of my mind I knew, like something goes wrong. You never know.

—You´ve got a background in sumo. What was that background?

—When I was in high school I got in some trouble. The counselor of the school by the name of John Jacks. He got me to go to sumo practice. So he didn´t tell my mom about that trouble I got into. So I went to sumo practice. He promised to me he wouldn´t tell. I went back the next day. It was a tournament. I won a case of… and some rice. That was it. I went over two years. I competed up there in Japan. It was the best experience ever. It´s not too much people in the history of life get to experience that world. So I was one of the few who got to experience that. I learned a lot from it, you know. Discipline, Japanese culture, similar to my samoan-hawaian culture. So it was a good experience to me.

—There was this guy, Art Davie, how did he put the offer to you to come fight in the UFC?

—I believe he called John Jacks. I believe they offered to some other sumo wrestlers who had excuses. So he came up to me. I thought of an excuse myself but as a little boy, you know, anybody who thought the tough guy, who watched all that movies, bloodsports movies, prison movies. The old dream of being the toughest guy. And this was the opportunity to really throw your heart up there see if he was the toughest guy.

—What was your expectation of the actual tournament when he explained it to you?

—I´m always the guy prepared for the worst. And so I said I was done with it, as long as you give me enough to pay my funeral bill. I´m down with it but I ain´t sticking my mind with a funeral bill… So you give me enough to pay my funeral bills I´m on the plane…

—When you rolled in the hotel and there were doing fighters, rules, meetings and a bunck of bickering, quarreling came up?

—It was pretty much chaos and I just remember all of the managers and the fighters. I mean I was about to go off right in there. The meeting, nobody wanted to sign the contract. I just remember thinking back. Everybody making excuses. Like I said I expected the worst. I was there to fight too. My brother, who I was with he looked at me and said: what do you want to do? We´ve got to get out of here. We´re not the kind of guys who talk too much. So he told me: sign the paper and get the hell out of here. So I signed the contract while I was walking out. The Gracie guy: Hey, Tulie, where you going? And I stopped and I looked at him. I´m going up to my room. What about the contract? There was no arguing with him. It´s right there. I´ve just signed it. He told everybody. Look at that. That´s a man. I remember everybody quiet down and I looked at the man. I said hey man, I came here to party. Everybody came here to party. I see you in the arena tomorrow.

—What was it like for you when you saw these other guys around and start wondering, hey who am I gonna fight. What´s gonna happen. What was it like at that time?

—You would be living a dream. We all watched those movies. Bruce Lee movies, all the fighters coming together to fight. Se we knew what was we gonna do and I was living a dream. I mean you get to look a lot of fighters who was willing to risk and it was kind of easier to me because if you looked at who I was with. I had two brothers and a cousin, two cousins. They thought my brother was to fight him as I was the heaviest guy in the camp. Nobody else was heavy like me. They was all slim, you know, and young, strong building. So they all eyed up my brother.

—Gerard is probably the second baddest guy in the tournament behind Royce Gracie. You drew him right off the bat. What did you think when you saw him standing across the cage from you before the fight start?

—I was thinking about my knees. I knew he has some wicked kicks so I was thinking all about my knees but he´s a great fighter. But he´s also a lucky fighter. I was one inch from tagging his chin. I would attack these children but we´re in a different game. Like I said I paid the price.

—What was it like when it was over?

—Honestly, when I think back to that time. I can only think how lucky I am that my brother threw the towel, stopped. Like I said I went there thinking of promoting myself in the wrong way. I wanted to show off. That´s what I wanted to do. I wanted to show people I could kick… 6. 21 min.

En Facebook

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