Lineup complete for September's WSOF 23 card in Phoenix, including three UFC vets

Clifford Starks

The lineup for next month’s WSOF 23 card in Arizona has been finalized with the addition of seven preliminary-card fights.

Included in the mix are UFC veterans Isaac Vallie-Flagg, Estevan Payan and Clifford Starks. WSOF officials recently announced the fights for the show in Phoenix.

WSOF 23 takes place Sept. 18 at Comerica Theatre in Phoenix. The main card airs on NBCSN following prelims on MMAjunkie.

Notable fights include Payan (16-8) vs. Vallie-Flagg (15-7-1) in a lightweight bout, plus Starks (12-2) vs. Krasimir Mladenov (12-0) at middleweight.

Payan will make his WSOF debut in a lightweight fight against Vallie-Flagg. After a pair of Strikeforce wins, Payan, a Phoenix native and resident, moved to the UFC in the merger of the two promotions. But there, he dropped three straight fights and was released. After losses under the Bellator and Titan FC banners, he rebounded in June with a win for Rage in the Cage to get his WSOF shot.

Vallie-Flagg, like Payan, came to the UFC after fighting for Strikeforce. But after a split-decision win in his promotional debut, he dropped three straight and was let go. He won a fight outside the promotion in June, but lost by disqualification against Jason Witt for an illegal knee at Titan FC 34 in July. He’ll try to rebound with losses in four of his past five when he meets Payan.

Starks has won four straight fights since being released from the UFC with a 1-2 mark in that promotion. He had back-to-back wins under the Bellator banner before signing with WSOF, where he is 2-0 in 2015, including a win earlier this month against Mike Kyle.

Mladenov, from Bulgaria, will try to stay unbeaten and perfect in the WSOF. There, he has three straight unanimous decision wins – one each in 2013, 2014 and this year, most recently against Brendan Kornberger at WSOF 17.

Other fights set for the prelims include Kelvin Tiller (7-1) vs. Vagab Vagabov (15-0) at middleweight; Danny Davis Jr. (11-8-1) vs. Matthew Frincu (6-1) at welterweight; bantamweight bouts between David Nuzzo (7-1) and Andres Ponce (1-0), plus Joey Miolla (4-1) vs. Randy Steinke (15-9-1); and Jeff Fletcher (11-10) vs. Benny Madrid (7-3) at lightweight.

The complete WSOF 23 card now includes:

MAIN CARD (NBCSN, 9 p.m. ET)

• Champ Justin Gaethje vs. Luis Palomino – for lightweight title
• Dave Branch vs. Teddy Holder – for inaugural light heavyweight title
• Tito Jones vs. Timur Valiev
• Ben Fodor vs. Roberto Yong
• LaRue Burley vs. Brian Foster

PRELIMINARY CARD (MMAjunkie, 7 p.m. ET)

• Kelvin Tiller vs. Vagab Vagabov
• Krasimir Mladenov vs. Clifford Starks
• Estevan Payan vs. Isaac Vallie-Flagg
• Danny Davis Jr. vs. Matthew Frincu
• David Nuzzo vs. Andres Ponce
• Joey Miolla vs. Randy Steinke
• Jeff Fletcher vs. Benny Madrid

For more on WSOF 23, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.