Teila Tuli, who fought at the inaugural UFC event in 1993, has died at the age of 56 according to KITV in Hawaii.
Tuli, who competed as a Sumo, was recruited for the first UFC event in November 1993 in Denver, Colorado.
The memorable spectacle saw Gerard Gordeau finish Tuli with a head kick after Tuli lost three teeth and two were lodged into Gordeau’s foot. After twenty-six seconds, referee Joao Alberto Barreto stopped the contest. Goredeau broke his hand in the fight and fought twice more that night against Kevin Rosier and Royce Gracie.
In his book “Is This Legal?”, Art Davie stated that Tuli wanted $10,000 to fight on the card and they agreed to pay him $6,000 along with flying his brother and two cousins to the show in Denver, and they reached an agreement. Tuli made an additional $1,000 for the fight and was one of two fighters on the card along with Art Jimmerson to be paid a guarantee in advance.
Davie also described a chaotic scene at the fighter meeting where the competitors had questions and concerns including the conflict of Rorian Gracie being one of the organizers while his younger brother was also competing.
Then Teila Tuli, in the most dramatic and theatrical of gestures, stood up and announced, “I just signed my paper. I don’t know about you guys but I came here to party. If anyone else came to party, I’ll see you tomorrow night at the arena.” He then slammed his signed paper down on the table. The sound reverberated throughout the room.
The tension was completely sucked out of the room and that was the end of the arguing and debating.
I concluded that I had almost blown all of this by going along with Rorian being in charge. My own fault. If it wasn’t for Teila Tuli, I felt that the Ultimate Fighting Championship might have been derailed on the eve of the event.
It was a “one and done” affair for Tuli, who never fought again and ventured into Hollywood and billed as “Taylor Wily” where he became an actor and was part of “Hawaii Five-O”, “Magnum P.I.” and had a memorable part in the 2008 film, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”
Before being enlisted by the UFC, he competed as a sumo beginning in 1987 under the name ‘Takamikuni’ and was part of the same stable as Akebono (Chad Rowan) until retiring in 1989.
TMZ noted that he is survived by his wife Halona and two children.
