Evgeny Tishchenko, who is Russia’s 2016 Olympic champion, has denied the circulating reports that he tested positive for COVID-19.

Several media reports alleged the 28-year-old boxer had been tested for the novel coronavirus and came up positive.

Tishchenko has no idea where the information came from. He confirms that a test was indeed taken, but it came up negative.

"I have no idea who is reporting that my test was positive," Tishchenko told TASS. "My test [for coronavirus] was collected on April 30 and it was negative. Therefore, the reports are not true."

Tishchenko won Olympic gold at the 2016 games in Brazil. He is also a 2015 world amateur champion and two-time European champion (2015 and 2017) in the heavyweight division.

Rather than wait for the 2020 Olympic games, he made a decision to become a professional n August 2018 in the cruiserweight division. That proved to be a smart decision, as the coronavirus pandemic has forced the postponement of the Olympic games until 2021. 

To date, he's built up an undefeated record with seven wins and five by knockout.

According to stats from the World Health Organization (WHO), over 4,270,000 people have been infected worldwide with COVID-19 and more than 287,600 deaths have been reported. Over 1,536,000 individuals have recovered from the illness.

At the present, 232,243 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the country of Russia, with 43,512 of those individuals having recovered and 2,116 recorded fatalities in the nation.