They fight footballers around penalty area (4,6)

I believe the answer is:

kick boxers

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

'penalty area' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.

'they fight footballers' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'fight' could be 'box' (boxing is a kind of fighting) and 'box' is found in the answer.
'footballers' could be 'kickers' (kicker is a kind of footballer) and 'kickers' is found within the leftover letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

'around' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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