Where gladiators fought for a warm-hearted woman (5)
I believe the answer is:
arena
'where gladiators fought' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'a warm-hearted woman' is the wordplay.
'hearted' means to look at the middle letters.
'woman' becomes 'ena' (feminine given name).
The central letters of 'warm' are 'ar'.
'ar'+'ena'='ARENA'
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for arena that I've seen before include "Scene of action" , "Central area in sports stadium" , "sports ground" , "Field of combat" , "An era (anag.)" .)