Nigerian Dambe boxing goes global -- amulets and charms included

Abuja: The first strikes in Dambe are thrown before the boxers even leave their house. Fighters don charms and amulets, dye their fist or even scor...

Abuja: The first strikes in Dambe are thrown before the boxers even leave their house.

Fighters don charms and amulets, dye their fist or even score their arm with a razor, inserting traditional medicine before it scars over -- all guaranteed to protect them in the ring or deliver a knock-out punch.

Combined with prayers from "mallams", or spiritual guides, they are unstoppable -- not just in Nigeria, but increasingly around the world.

The Dambe World Series kicked off in Abuja, the capital, on Saturday in the latest evolution of a sport that traces its roots back centuries among west Africa's Hausa speakers.

"Instead of trying to Westernise it, or instead of trying to make it something else, for us the goal is to professionalise it," said Maxwell Kalu, founder of the West African Fighting Championship, the group organising the tournament.