Looking through the fights I have seen live I decided to see who I saw before they became champions.

Only criteria is they had to have fought on prelims or worse (see Jones, J)

Turns out more than I actually thought

Jon Jones – UFC 100 – dark match

Renan Barao – UFC 130

Demetrious Johnson – UFC 130

Glover Teixeira – UFC 146

Khabib Nurmagomedov – UFC 160

Robert Whittaker – UFC 160

Tony Ferguson – UFC 173

Cody Garbrandt – UFC 189

Raquel Pennington – UFC 191