Man mentioned belligerent and dark lover (9)
I believe the answer is:
nighthawk
'dark lover' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'man mentioned belligerent' is the wordplay.
'man' becomes 'knight' (man can mean a piece in chess).
'mentioned' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'belligerent' becomes 'hawk' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'knight' is a homophone of 'night'.
'night'+'hawk'='NIGHTHAWK'
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nighthawk that I've seen before include "18's [BIRD]" , "Nocturnal creature" , "Dark lover" .)