The phrase "contending against" is correct and usable in written English.
It is generally used to describe a struggle or competition between two opposing forces. For example, "The team was contending against their archrival for the championship title."
Initial costs of solar-photovoltaics have remained a significant factor contending against the wide-spread utilization of solar energy.
Southeast Asia has been the crossroads of many peoples who have been contending against each other for centuries.
I wasn't contending against chauvinism, like George Eliot Mary Anne Evanss), or against puritanism, like Pauline Réage (Anne Desclos), or political repression, like Mo Yan Guan Moyee); the only thing I was struggling against was my own tendency toward self-defeat.
Labor is the endless and inglorious toil by which we secure our biological survival, symbolized by the sweat of Adam's brow as he renders the earth fruitful, contending against blight, drought, and disaster.
If a successful attack occurs then future sporting events will be affected, with the contested 2024 Olympics, of which Paris is contending against Budapest, Rome, and Los Angeles, almost certainly giving Los Angeles the strong position.
A few representatives of the people, would be opposed to the people themselves; or rather one set of representatives would be contending against thirteen sets of representatives, with the whole body of their common constituents on the side of the latter.
The commissioners argued that buildings based on Kempthorne's plans would be symbolic of the recent changes to the provision of poor relief; one assistant commissioner expressed the view that they would be something "the pauper would feel it was utterly impossible to contend against", and "give confidence to the Poor Law Guardians".
Now they have to contend against state schools and universities.
We contend against the forces of disaster and degeneration.
The mountain climbers in "Solo Faces" contend against both gravity and the vagaries of age.
It's a point that even a few months ago some pundits may have contended against.
