The wife of professional boxer Evander Holyfield is asking for a temporary protective order, claiming he assaulted her the night of Feb. 1.

In a court filing dated Feb. 3, Candi Holyfield said her husband “hit me in the face, the back of my head twice and in my back” during a quarrel between the two inside their north Fayette home.

Evander Holyfield then turned on the light in the room and started looking at her face before apologizing, Candi Holyfield said in the court filing.

The court filing represents only one side of the story. Evander Holyfield’s attorneys have not yet filed a response in the case.

Candi Holyfield also cites several previous incidents where her husband physically abused her. She claimed that 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.

Mrs. Holyfield is asking the court to bar her husband from coming within 500 yards of her and forbid him from having contact with her or the children. She is also seeking sole legal and physical custody of the children and the exclusive temporary use of the family’s residence.

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, according to court records.