Battle to get space at bar (9)
I believe the answer is:
encounter
'battle' is the definition.
(I know that encounter is a type of combat)
'space at bar' is the wordplay.
'space' becomes 'en' (in printing, a space as wide as a letter 'n').
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'bar' becomes 'counter' (I've seen this before).
'en'+'counter'='ENCOUNTER'
'to get' is the link.
(Other definitions for encounter that I've seen before include "Run into - combat" , "Face" , "Meet unexpectedly" , "tackle" , "Come accross, meet (9)" .)