As a one time boxer, I'm still trying to figure out this sport came to be out of curiosity, its a traditional boxing common in the Northern part of my country and they(The Northerners) holds it in the highest significance. As a kickboxer and a one time nonprofessional amateur conventional boxer, I have some thoughts about this weird game which you might find interesting.
Its not a MMA- Mixed Martial Art category, its just an entity on its own where boxers bout with one hand and block/guide with the other free hand. But it's still comes with some basic boxing rules of no biting, no hitting of balls, no head butting and no kicking. You can also KO your opponents, by KO i mean Knock Out and points are scored just like professional boxing: meaning punched to the head and faces earns points and could be a decider at the end of a bout.
Strangely, the logic behind one hand boxing still freaks me out and I can't help but imaging a bout with a conventional boxer and a Dambe boxer. Imagine throwing punches with just one hand against someone who could jab with both hands and also give a 2 and 3 with each punches. For non boxing fans, a 2 is a side punch to the side faces which easily throws anyone off balances and then a 3 is uppercut which is a big point giver as it mostly knocks opponents off their feet in any boxing fight. My coach back then use to warn us against Southpaws because their 3s(Uppercuts) are usually more deadlier than a righty.
So let's say you can throw a 1 2 3 with one hand in a Dambe boxing, what does your other free hand do? I have seen many videos where Dambe Boxers swings the freehand to keep balance and to deliver a much heavier punch with the fight hands, which is very risky if in a fight with a conventional boxer because there will be too many openings for jabs, side punches and uppercuts to the face. The goal of real boxing is to guide your face with the same hands that you throw punches with, but that is not the case with this local boxing called DAMBE!