beat someone to the punch

VittorioTafur Beat Raiders to the punch @AdamSchefter: Chargers relieved defensive coordinator Greg Manusky of duties, Head Coach Norv Turner announced

http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/beat+a+person+to+the+punch

beat a person to the punch
アクセントbéat a person to the púnch
(1) 【ボクシング】〈相手に〉先にパンチを与える.
(2) 〈相手の〉機先を制する.

I think a good idiom dictionary has to

1. definition
2. example(s)
3. motivation (the reason why the expression came to have that specific meaning)
4. Syntactic formula (In this case, it is "beat (someone) to the punch." instead of "beat to the punch, which some dictionaries list and only show examples of that kind.(beaten to the punch.

Actually this idiom is still complex, as it seems to involve blending/pun/double meaning (beating someone (in boxing) and beating someone (in a race), metonymy ("the punch" is "throwing the punch") and metaphor ("beat to" , I believe, means "arrive earlier to" and in that case it involves ACTION IS LOCATION; DOING IS GOING TO A LOCATION kind of metaphor."