UFC middleweight David Branch will have to wait until 2021 after receiving a two-year suspension from USADA following a failed drug test.
Suspension news was announced by USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) on Wednesday.
“Branch, 37, tested positive for ipamorelin as the result of a urine sample he provided out-of-competition on May 24, 2019. Ipamorelin is in the class of Peptide Hormones, Growth Factors, Related Substances, and Mimetics and prohibited at all times under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, which has adopted the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List,” USADA officials wrote in a statement.
Branch (22-6) will be able to return to UFC competition in July 2021. He was supposed to fight Andrew Sanchez at UFC in Vancouver on September 14, but his removal from the event was confirmed in August, just days after his provisional suspension was imposed.
The former two-division WSOF champion was on a two-fight losing streak at the time of his USADA failure, suffering a TKO to Jared Cannonier November, 2018 before his April submission defeat to rising contender Jack Hermansson.
Since his return to the UFC in 2017, Branch has found mixed results with a 2-3 record overall including a win over Thiago Santos while dropping his last two fights in a row with a TKO loss to Jared Cannonier followed by a submission defeat courtesy of Jack Hermansson.
