Being heartless fighter, S Asian (7)

I believe the answer is:

bengali

's asian' is the definition.

'being heartless fighter' is the wordplay.
'heartless' suggests removing the centre.
'fighter' becomes 'Ali' (boxer Muhammad Ali).
'being' with its centre taken out is 'beng'.
'beng'+'ali'='BENGALI'

(Other definitions for bengali that I've seen before include "Ethnic group and language of NE Indian subcontinent" , "Native of Calcutta region" , "Asian character" , "may be Indian" , "Language of Bangladesh and northeast India" .)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.

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