Predicament caused by fight beginning to escalate (6)
I believe the answer is:
scrape
'predicament' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'fight beginning to escalate' is the wordplay.
'fight' becomes 'scrap' (a scrap is a minor fight).
'beginning to' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'escalate' is 'e'.
'scrap'+'e'='SCRAPE'
'caused by' is the link.
(Other definitions for scrape that I've seen before include "Slight skin abrasion" , "pickle!" , "Graze the skin" , "Fix - grate" , "Clean with edge of knife" .)