Toby Imada: Best MMA Submission of 2009 (So Far)

It was the YouTube highlight that put the upstart Bellator Fighting Championships on the map, and it was an easy choice for our MMA Submission of the Half Year: Toby Imada choking out Jorge Masvidal with an inverted triangle.

Imada would become a YouTube star, with around half a million people watching the video of his incredible submission online. But while the submission looks crazy, Imada says it's a move he practices all the time.

"It's something that I've always trained," Imada told FanHouse. "Whenever I get put in a certain situation, I always want to have a few moves I can execute. It just so happened that I ended up with Masvidal holding the single-leg on me and that's pretty much a gimme. So right there, I just went for it and he didn't try to get out; he kind of just stood up. So I locked it up and I finished it, just like I did in training a bunch of times before."

Here are some of our Submission of the Half Year runners-up:

Krzysztof Soszynski, for the kimura he used to get Brian Stann to tap at UFC 97. (A submission he explained here.)

Demian Maia, for the triangle choke he used to get Chael Sonnen to tap at UFC 95.

Joe Lauzon, for a sweet arm bar that got Jeremy Stephens to tap at Ultimate Fight Night 17.

Alan Belcher, for catching Denis Kang in a guillotine at UFC 93.

Marlon Sandro, for his standing arm triangle choke against Matt Jaggers at Sengoku Seventh Battle. (More on that here.)

Josh Grispi, for the guillotine that finished Jens Pulver in just 33 seconds at WEC 41.

Seth Dikun, for a flying triangle choke against Rolando Perez at WEC 41.