red legged partrige fighting!

Lots of R L partrides around at firsklerton fen these days and I was lucky to see some serious fighting going on -obviously hard to sex at a distance but it looked like 2 males going at it hammer and tongs with what I assumed was a female watching closely watching - this fighting had much leaping up in the air kicking at each other and what looked like some serious biting and hanging on to the nape - feathers wqere flying and it carrie3d on for about 20 minutes - at times the assumed female got bored and wandered off but kept coming back to check on progress. Not seen this before - I first thought it wsa some kind of a mini lek - i assume it was a territorial fight in the end - just wondered if anyone else has more knowledge about this in R L partridges.