Beating champion of the century? (7)

I believe the answer is:

tonking

'beating champion of the century?' is the definition.
'tonking' can be an answer for 'beating' (tonk can mean hit or strike). I'm not sure about the 'champion of the century?' bit.

'beating champion' is the wordplay.
'beating' becomes 'ton' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'champion' becomes 'king' (I've seen this in other clues).
'ton'+'king'='TONKING'

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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