According to Paul Dickson's The New Dickson's Baseball Dictionary (Harcourt Brace, 1999), a "rubber game" is "The last and deciding game of a series when the previous games have been split; e.g., the seventh game of the World Series." This tie-breaking sense of "rubber" apparently originated in the English game of "bowls," or lawn bowling. Despite its name, bowls has little in common with American bowling, and consists of rolling wooden balls (called "bowls") across a level green, the object being to get your ball as close as possible to (but not to hit) a little white ball at the other end of the green. "Rubber" in its tie-breaking sense first appeared in the context of bowls around 1599, and was in use by the card-playing crowd (whist, bridge, etc.) by 1744. A set of three games of bridge is still generally referred to as a "rubber."
Unfortunately, no one knows where "rubber" in this sense came from. It appears to be unrelated to the elastic sort of "rubber." (Incidentally, our modern elastic "rubber" is short for "India-rubber," from its original source in the East Indies. "Rubber" previously meant anything used to rub, smooth or clean.) Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ventures that the term may have referred to two "bowls" rubbing together, a fatal error in the game of bowls. Or it might be a metaphorical use of "rubber" (something that expunges) referring to the "sudden death" third game of a series, the loss of which would conclusively "rub out" the losing team's hopes. But there is, sad to say, no solid evidence for either theory.
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In 1909 Joe Jeanette fought to a twenty round draw in his rubber match with Sam McVea, a considerably shorter fight than their second meeting which lasted 49 rounds. McVea went on to lose his 1912 rubber match with Sam Langford. Future Heavyweight champion Gene Tunney, several years before his signature victories over Jack Dempsey, would win his 1923 rubber match against his then-most significant rival, future Middleweight champion Harry Greb who had previously given Tunney his only career loss in their initial meeting. The most notable rubber match of the 1930s was arguably Barney Ross' decision victory over Jimmy McLarnin for the Welterweight title, a fight which took place in the Polo Grounds in 1935.
In the 1940s Sugar Ray Robinson, having suffered the first loss of his career in his second meeting with Jake LaMotta, would avenge the loss only three weeks later by a unanimous decision in their rubber match (Robinson would not suffer another defeat in his next 89 fights, and he and LaMotta would fight another three times, with Robinson winning all three fights; the series is depicted in Robert De Niro's Oscar winning film Raging Bull.) Also in that decade, in 1948, Middleweight champion Rocky Graziano, after splitting two sixth round knockouts in back to back fight of the year contests with Tony Zale and capturing Zale's Middleweight title, was brutally knocked out by Zale with a left hook in the third round of their rubber match; losing his title and their great trilogy. This third fight was conspicuously not mentioned in a biographical film made about Graziano, where he was depicted by Paul Newman in Somebody Up There Likes Me.
In the 1950s Sandy Saddler won his rubber match and regained the Featherweight titlte against Willie Pep who quit with an injury; they would meet in a fourth fight which had the same result. Kid Gavilan would win a controversial rubber match against rival Billy Graham in Madison Square Garden; the referee had to leave under police escort to protect him from the enraged crowd which believed that Graham had won (Gavilan would go on to win an uncontroversial fourth fight.) Archie Moore won a decision against rival Harold Johnson in a non-title rubber match, though the two would meet again in a title fight in their fourth meeting. Carmen Basilio after splitting two fights with Johnny Saxton, including the 1956 fight of the year, successfully defended his title and ended the trilogy in easier fashion with a quick second round knockout in his final Welterweight fight.
One infamous rubber match took place in the 1960s between Emile Griffith and Cuban Welterweight world champion Benny Paret in their 1962 meeting in Madison Square Garden, where Paret was badly battered and stopped by Griffith in the 12th round. As a result of this knockout Paret died several days later. Griffith went on to fight in two other major multi-fight series, winning a rubber match against another Cuban world champion, Luis Manuel Rodriguez, but losing his rubber match to Italian foe Nino Benvenuti, who twice captured Griffith's Middleweight title. Earlier in the decade Heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson had won his rubber match with Swedish opponent Ingemar Johansson, a fight where both fighters were knocked down multiple times. Joey Giardello won his Middleweight title in his rubber match with Nigerian champion Dick Tiger; Tiger would regain the title in their last meeting. In 1967 in Shea Stadium, Puerto Rican world Lightweight champion Carlos Ortiz clearly defeated Panamanian rival Ismael Laguna to end their trilogy.
In the 1970s the most famous rubber match in the history of modern sports took place between Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and archnemesis former champion Joe Frazier. A fight dubbed the Thrilla in Manila, Ali in the brutal heat of the Philippines won by a late TKO in the 14th round, after a back and forth vacillating contest. The fight was named the 1975 fight of the year, and concluded Ali and Frazier's heralded and acrimonious trilogy. Ali would also narrowly win his trilogy against Ken Norton the next year in their 1976 rubber match in Yankee Stadium. Also in that decade, Roberto Duran in a 1978 unification bout became the undisputed Lightweight champion by savagely knocking out Esteban De Jesus in their third fight, scoring his record twelfth Lightweight title defense in his final fight in that weight class. In the 1980s Roberto Duran also engaged in a 1989 rubber match with Sugar Ray Leonard, nine years after their initial meeting, with Leonard winning a decision and thus the trilogy. In the 1990s Evander Holyfield was stopped for the first time in his career in a TKO rubber match loss to Brooklyn rival Riddick Bowe to end their dramatic trilogy.
Boxing had numerous important rubber matches in the 2000s. Suffering a broken hand in the course of the fight, Arturo Gatti won his rubber match against Micky Ward; this 2003 ending to their trilogy was named fight of the year. Three division champion Erik Morales lost two rubber matches in this decade, one in the 2004 fight of the year against his fellow Mexican rival Marco Antonio Barrera as well as a third round knockout loss to Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao. Rafael Marquez lost his 2008 fight of the year rubber match against Israel Vazquez, though he went on to defeat Vazquez in the fourth and final meeting. Prior to his trilogy with Marquez, Vazquez had easily won his rubber match with his other rival, Oscar Larios, in a third round TKO. Unfortunately a scheduled rubber match between the late Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo was cancelled after Castillo had for a second time failed to make weight. In the Light Heavyweight division, Antonio Tarver won his trilogy against former pound for pound king Roy Jones, Jr. by a unanimous decision in their rubber match.
Similar to boxing, a rubber match in sports is the last game of a series in which the winner will win the series. For example, in a three game series, if team A wins game one and team B wins game two, then the winner of the third game, the rubber match, will win the series.
Mixed martial arts rubber matches include Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture, Vitor Belfort vs. Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia vs. Andrei Arlovski, Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre, Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva, Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard, and Matt Hughes vs. B.J. Penn, in the UFC, as well as Shinya Aoki vs. Joachim Hansen in Dream.
A third game of a three-game series is often referred as a rubber match when both teams have won one of the previous two games, and in the NCAA game, the second and fourth playoff weeks are best-of-three matches.[1]
During the 2010-2011 NFL season, both AFC Divisional Playoff games were between two divisional opponents who had split their two divisional matches (Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers; New York Jets at New England Patriots). Each game was referred to as a rubber match.