(After three days of utter confusion, Arianny finally realizes what ‘Chocolate Al’ means. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle. For more photos from this album, click here.)

As you make plans for your various drunken 4th of July celebrations, keep in mind that some of the men you see tonight may be too injured to grill burgers on Monday. Appreciate their sacrifice, ladies and gentlemen. Now then, who wants to see some dudes get kicked in the head and choked unconcious?

Manning the liveblog duties for this evening is CagePotato rising star Jason Moles, who will be providing round-by-round updates from the UFC 132 pay-per-view card beginning at 9 p.m. ET. Travel past the jump to join our little liveblog party, and refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest. Thanks for being here, and may God bless this great nation.

Live Videos by Ustream

Launched by our buds at Heavy.com, Fight Day is the only live UFC pre-show on the Internet, and will be broadcasting from the MGM Grand Garden Arena starting at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT. Today’s “UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber” installment features preview coverage, fight analysis, and interviews from an all-star cast of fighters and reporters, including Brian Stann, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Hottest Women in MMA Grand Prix nominee Megan Olivi, and former CagePotato editor turned shrimp-boat captain Ben “Stumpy” Fowlkes. If you’re around this afternoon, watch the show in the embedded Ustream player above, and keep the dial on CagePotato.com this evening for our UFC 132 liveblog!

(Props: MMATrailers6)

Okay, so it’s not the next UFC event on the docket — that would be this Sunday’s UFC Live: Marquardt vs. Story show — but we might as well start getting hyped for the next pay-per-view card. UFC 132 goes down July 2nd in Las Vegas, featuring a bantamweight title fight, a fan-friendly matchup of sluggers, and Tito Ortiz‘s ongoing quest for redemption. The extended video preview does a decent job of explaining why you should care, but as is usually the case with these things, the hype is based on a series of well-worn fight cliches. Lets run ‘em down…

“I’m not the same fighter I was then. Things are just different. It’s not the same anymore.” (Dominick Cruz)
When Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber first met in March 2007, the California Kid was the WEC’s reigning featherweight champ and the promotion’s first home-grown star. Cruz was a promising contender, but he was still a little green, and wound up getting choked out in under two minutes.

Cruz hasn’t lost a fight since, and now the roles are reversed; he’s the reigning champion (now at 135 pounds), looking to stave off a title challenge by his old rival. Admittedly, Cruz is a much better fighter in 2011 than he was four years ago. His footwork has developed into a dynamic, utterly unique style of controlled chaos; his integration of boxing and wrestling has become seamless, and maddening for his opponents.

The reason that “I’m not the same fighter” is a lame cliche, even when Cruz says it, is that it implies your opponent is the same fighter. Which he’s not, obviously.