LAS VEGAS – For years, there was a familiar ritual to fight weeks, particularly pay-per-view fight weeks, in the UFC.

Early in the week would be the Dana White video blog. White would run a news conference and field the majority of the questions.

When the news conference ended, White would hold a wide-ranging scrum with reporters.

White then would do television interviews and radio interviews day-after-day until fight night.

And it worked. White is a brilliant promoter.

But what that strategy did was to promote Dana White more than anything else.

White, the colorful and outspoken UFC president, has long held a policy of answering every question. And so if he were promoting UFC 196, as he is this week, he’d be willing to answer questions not only about that week’s events, but also about upcoming events, cities that could be on the UFC’s radar to host future shows and a wide-ranging list of topics.

But in the last year or so, there has been a noticeable switch. White is far less accessible to the media than he had been, and perhaps that’s a good thing for the fighters.

White’s absence has led to more of a focus on the fighters and the events of the current week than what was to come.

View photos UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) More

A welterweight bout between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz headlines UFC 196 on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden. A women’s bantamweight title fight between Holly Holm and Miesha Tate is the co-feature.

Even though the historical element of McGregor potentially becoming the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously went by the boards last week when lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos broke a foot and had to withdraw, the show still has a good chance to reach 1 million pay-per-view sales.

Though the figure is often tossed around, it is an enormous line to hit and very difficult to do in boxing, MMA and pro wrestling.

Much of the interest in UFC 196 is centered around McGregor, the promotion’s dynamic featherweight champion who, by talent and force of personality, has become one of the biggest stars in the sport.

McGregor, and ex-women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, would have become big-time stars regardless of how White was used to promote.

But with the spotlight off White and firmly on the fighters now, it enables a show to grow exponentially if the fighters can sell it.

White’s strategy for years was reminiscent of boxing promoter Don King’s, in that King promoted himself more than he ever promoted a fight. It was clearly King’s intention to do business that way. He tried to make himself a major public figure and felt that by doing so, he could sell shows on his own.

It probably wasn’t White’s intention to market himself, but the affect of his great media presence for nearly 15 years was to make himself a bigger star than any of his fighters.

And he’s still up there in that level. White, for instance, has 3.47 million followers on Twitter and 1.4 million on Instagram. McGregor has 1.2 million on Twitter and 3.5 million on Instagram. And Rousey has 2.2 million Twitter followers and 7.6 million on Instagram.

The UFC is a pay-per-view company, and pay-per-view requires stars. So any promotional model that takes away from star-building isn’t as effective as it could be.

View photos Dana White answers questions during a media event. (Getty) More

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