Crossword Genius

He fought good boy in addition to frontrunners for gold (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

gladiator

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'he fought good boy in addition to frontrunners for gold' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.

'he fought good boy in addition to' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'he' could be 'ad' and 'ad' is present in the answer.
'good' could be 'g' (abbreviation) and 'g' is found in the answer.
'to' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'liar' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for gladiator that I've seen before include "Film" , "Roman arena combatant" , "Spartacus, for example" , "Circus performer" , "One scrapped" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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