David Branch will have to sit on the shelf for a while as the USADA ban hammer has struck.
Earlier today (Sept. 18), USADA announced that Branch has received a two-year sanction for violating the anti-doping policy. This stems from a May 24 out-of-competition drug test. Branch tested positive for ipamorelin.
Here is the official statement from USADA.
“USADA announced today that David Branch, of Montville, N.J., has received a two-year sanction for a violation of the UFC® Anti-Doping Policy after testing positive for a prohibited substance.
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.
Ipamorelin is a potent Growth Hormone Secretagogue that stimulates the brain to release human growth hormone and is used by athletes as a performance-enhancing drug. The use of prohibited peptides by athletes and consumers for performance or physique enhancement purposes (including recovery from injury) poses serious health risks, and these peptides are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for human use or consumption.
Branch’s two-year period of ineligibility, the standard sanction for a non-Specified Substance under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, began on July 26, 2019, the date his provisional suspension was imposed.”
Branch was last seen in action at UFC Philly earlier this year. He was submitted by Jack Hermansson in just 49 seconds. Branch is on a two-fight skid and the 37-year-old will have to wait until 2021 to get back in the win column.
