LAS VEGAS – Bryan Barberena was crushed when he learned Matt Brown wouldn’t be able to make Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 31 . The forum in which he got the information didn’t help, either. Barberena was 11 days out from his welterweight bout with Brown and pleased with his preparation going into the final stretch of camp. He was spending some of his downtime playing video games when a viewer on his live stream informed him Brown had announced a positive COVID-19 test on social media. The news caught Barberena way off guard, he said, and his subsequent reaction was one of shock. “Definitely crushed in a sense – right away the initial reaction was just heart dropped,” Brown told MMA Junkie at Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN 31 media day.
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