Top 5 MMA Submissions of the Last Year

There is nothing I love more than a good submission to end a fight. Its one of the most exciting moments in MMA, you see a fighter caught in a submission and you wonder can he escape it, is he gonna tap, will he go unconscious or will his arm/leg be broken. These are my top 5 submissions of the last year in MMA.

5. Frank Shamrock Rear Naked Chokes Phil Baroni Unconscious with Baroni's eyes still open- First time I've ever seen someone choked out with their eyes open. These 2 guys hated each other and after the fight Shamrock even admitted to holding the choke a little longer to punish Baroni for talking so much trash. If you watch the video it looks like Baroni is a corpse, its great! WATCH HERE

4. BJ Penn Rear Naked Chockes Jens Pulver at the TUF 5 Finale- The transitions that set up this choke were amazing. Pulver puts his arm up while BJ has his back for a split second, then in an instant secures that arm with his leg while grabbing his neck. Penn admitted later on to holding the choke longer to punish Pulver. WATCH HERE

3. Renato Babalu Sobral Anaconda Chokes David Heath Unconscious at UFC 74, Then Gets Fired from the UFC- Before this fight David Heath was wearing a shirt with Babalu's mugshot on it all weekend in Vegas. Apparently Babalu was pretty pissed off at the guy. Before the infamous choke Babalu had bloodied Heath to the point where it looked like both men were standing next to Stephan King's Carrie at the prom. Then he slaps the anaconda on tight, Heath starts tapping but Babalu keeps it in deep until Heath goes to sleep. Babalu would say that he couldn't feel Heath tapping, but was still fired from the UFC. WATCH HERE

2. Forrest Griffin Rear Naked Chokes Mauricio Shogun Rua at UFC 76- Probably the most shocking outcome to a fight in a long time. Coming into the fight Shogun was considered the second best fighter in any weight class in the world. To the suprise of many Forrest shows better ground skills and even better standup than Rua. Middle of the second round Shogun gasses, by the third he is totally gassed, Forrest gets his back and sinks the choke in to make sure the fight didn't go to a decision(which he would of won anyway) and shock many MMA fans. WATCH HERE

1. Nick Diaz Submits Takanori Gomi with a Gogoplata at Pride 33- This is one my favorite fights ever and a fight that everyone should see. These are 2 of the most entertaining fighters you will ever see and when they got in the ring together chaos ensued. Diaz is known for never letting you breath, he will keep on throwing lighter punches while his opponents throw powerful punches every now and then. Gomi landed a haymaker that dropped Diaz early on but Diaz has the ability to relax in the ring and weathered that one shot with ease. Late in the first round Gomi started to gas and Diaz took advantage with pitter patter punches, landing a ridiculous amount on Gomi's chin. In the second round Gomi gets a takedown, but in the process gets caught in the Gogoplata, amazing ending to an amazing fight. WATCH HERE

There were alot of great submissions the past year, but these are the ones I enjoyed the most.