We hear little Matthew loves beastly fighters (8)
I believe the answer is:
matadors
'beastly fighters' is the definition.
(bullfighters - people who fight with beasts)
'we hear little matthew loves' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'little' could be 'tad' and 'tad' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for matadors that I've seen before include "They kill bulls for sport" , "Spanish sportsmen" , "The bullfighters who kill the bulls" , "Spanish bull-fighters" .)