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Fighting male is hard and fairly heated (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

warmish

'fairly heated' is the definition.
(somewhat heated or warm)

'fighting male is hard' is the wordplay.
'fighting' becomes 'war'.
'male' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'hard' becomes 'h' (abbreviation used in pencil classifications).
'war'+'m'+'is'+'h'='WARMISH'

'and' is the link.

(Another definition for warmish that I've seen is " Somewhat heated".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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