Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Candi Holyfield, the wife of former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield, has filed for a temporary protective order against her husband, according to court records.
The case was filed last week in Fayette County, Georgia, Superior Court, according to the Web site for the court clerk's office. The listing said the case involved family violence and an ex parte, or emergency, protective order, but provided no additional details.
In court documents posted on the gossip site Radar Online, Candi Holyfield claims Evander Holyfield struck her February 1 after she asked him about the heat being cut off. She said her husband told her she needed to put God first and asked her whether she had been tithing, then struck her when she refused to show him check stubs of payments to the church.
The couple was in bed, she said, and "he got up and turned the light on and started looking at my face and told me he was sorry, that he knew he shouldn't have done that."
But, she alleges, Evander Holyfield "has hurt me before and ... been violent in the presence of children."
Candi Holyfield says in the documents that the abuse began about six months into their marriage. In 2008, she said, Holyfield choked her in front of the couple's daughter and the housekeeper, and in 2009 he struck her in front of their children.
The emergency protective order was granted, according to the documents posted on Radar Online, pending a hearing set for February 18.
Holyfield, 47, is a four-time heavyweight boxing champion, and has estimated winnings of more than $200 million.
During the summer, his $10 million home in Fayette County was under foreclosure, but was pulled from the auction block at the last minute.
