slugfestnoun [ C ]
uk/ˈslʌɡ.fest//ˈslʌɡ.fest/US informala difficult game or competition, especially in sports such as boxing and baseball:
The fight was a hard, horrible 12-round slugfest.
a situation in which people compete very hard with each other in order to be successful:
The race in Oklahoma for the US Senate has escalated into a slugfest in recent weeks.