Wife, who claimed physical abuse, cites ‘personal reasons’ for dropping case

A temporary protective order filed against Evander Holyfield at the request of his wife Candi has now been dismissed, also at her request, according to court documents.

The protective order against Fayette’s most famous sports resident was filed Feb. 3 after Mrs. Holyfield claimed that “he hit me in the face, the back of my head twice and in my back” during a quarrel between the two at their north Fayette home Feb. 1.

The temporary protective order, which was dismissed Feb. 15 at Mrs. Holyfield’s request, had awarded her sole use of the family’s home and banned the boxing champ from having any contact or coming within 500 yards of her or their two children.

The order was to be revisited at a Feb. 18 court hearing during which Evander Holyfield would have an opportunity to contest the order.

In an affidavit Feb. 15, Candi Holyfield wrote that she wanted to dismiss the case “because of personal reasons.”

In her Feb. 3 request for the temporary protective order, Candi Holyfield cited several previous incidents where her husband physically abused her. She claimed that he hit her in front of the children last year and he choked her at one time in front of a child and a housekeeper.

In the court petition, Mrs. Holyfield claims the Feb. 1 altercation started when she started to talk to him about the heat being cut off to the residence and the children being cold. Candi Holyfield said that her husband first told her she was only thinking about herself before then saying, “I needed to start putting God first in my life.”

Candi Holyfield said the former boxing champion asked her if she had been tithing to the church and asked to see the check stubs from her payments to the church. She said she declined, and that’s when Evander Holyfield began striking her.

The couple was married in the summer of 2003 and in 2006 were separated for a time during which Candy Holyfield filed a divorce petition. The petition was dismissed one month later, according to court records.

The Holyfields live on a 104-acre property at the corner of Ga. highways 279 and 138. The home and property are valued by the county at $12.8 million, making Evander Holyfield one of the largest residential property taxpayers in the county. Last year he paid more than $165,000 in property taxes to Fayette County.

Evander Holyfield is facing a hearing later this month on a request from a California court to collect $375,765 from him in back child support.

In 2008 BB&T bank sued Holyfield over a promissory note; the bank won a judgment of $1.29 million in the case.

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