MMAjunkie.com Radio kicks off a week of star-studded programming with guest Evan Dunham, who won a “Submission of the Night” bonus by defeating “The Ultimate Fighter 8″ winner Efrain Escudero last week in the UFC Fight Night 20 co-main event.

Also scheduled for the show are UFC welterweight contender Paul Daley, who meets Josh Kocheck at UFC 113 in May, and this week’s winner of The Sunday Junkie, Andrew Kent.

MMAjunkie.com Radio begins at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. Listen to
and watch a video stream of the show at www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

Ultimate Fighting Championship executives today made official three additional bouts for the March 27 UFC 111 event in New Jersey, and one of them is set to air on the pay-per-view main card.

A welterweight bout of Martin Kampmann vs. Ben Saunders has earned guaranteed TV time.

Additionally, a welterweight bout between Ricardo Funch and Matthew Riddle, as well as a 205-pound contest between Rodney Wallace and Jared Hamman, are official for the night’s preliminary card.

Former UFC middleweight champion and veteran fighter Rich Franklin underwent successful hernia surgery last week and still expects to return to the octagon this spring.

J.T. Stewart, Franklin’s business manager, shared the news with the Dayton Daily News, a content partner site of MMAjunkie.com.

Franklin slotted the Jan. 12 surgery after a busy 2009 fight schedule continually forced him to postpone the procedure.

The quickly filling UFC on Versus 1 fight card has another addition now that Mike Pierce (10-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) and Rob Kimmons (22-5 MMA, 2-2 UFC) have agreed to a welterweight fight at the March 21 event.

Sources close to both of the competitors told MMAjunkie.com the fight is close to finalized.

UFC on Versus 1 takes place at the Odeum Colorado in Broomfield (near Denver), and the main card, including a headliner of Jon Jones vs. Brandon Vera, airs on Versus.

A middleweight bout between Yushin Okami (23-5 MMA, 7-2 UFC) and recent UFC newcomer Lucio Linhares (13-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC) is likely to take place on March 31 at UFC Fight Night 21.

Sources close to the bout said the fight is “a definite possibility,” though it is unclear if bout agreements have been signed.

UFC Fight Night 21, which serves as a lead-in for the debut of “The Ultimate Fighter 11″ on Spike TV, takes place in North Carolina, though UFC officials said as of Monday a host city and venue have not been made determined.

The UFC’s second trip to The Garden State has another fight to its lineup.

A middleweight match-up pitting submission ace Rousimar Palhares (10-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) against the heavy-handed Thomasz Drwal (17-2-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) will be finalized shortly for UFC 111, sources close to the situation told MMAjunkie.com. Both fighters have agreed to the match-up and are expected to turn in bout agreements this week.

UFC 111 is set for March 27 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

Featherweights Leonard Garcia (13-5 MMA, 3-2 WEC) and Diego Nunes (13-1 MMA, 2-1 WEC) have verbally agreed to meet at WEC 47 in March, and bout agreements should be finalized in the coming week.

Sources close to the event today confirmed the matchup with MMAjunkie.com.

The event takes place March 6 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The main card, including a a headliner of WEC featherweight champ Brian Bowles vs. Dominick Cruz, airs on Versus.

Most of us will never fully understand the amount of destruction this
past week’s earthquake delivered to the impoverished nation of Haiti.

WEC featherweight Mackens Semerzier is not one of those people.

Born in Florida to Haitian parents and married to a Haitian wife,
Semerzier waited days to learn the fate of many of his family members
who remained in the Caribbean nation. While his family survived the
disaster, Semerzier knows there are many others still in need. Now he’s
turning to the MMA community for assistance.

Erin Toughill is hard at work preparing for a return to action with an eye on Strikeforce gold.

Toughill, a former professional boxer and competitor on NBC’s “American
Gladiators” reincarnation, was forced to withdraw from a rematch with
Marloes Coenen at “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers” in November and wants
to stay active before returning to Strikeforce in the spring.

Toughill is expected to face Remy Ruyssen at Freestyle Cage Fighting on Jan. 30, the same night Coenen vies for the Strikeforce women’s 145-pound title against champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos.