By Robert Morales

Trainer Freddie Roach has no stake in Erislandy Lara or Paul Williams, so it was interesting to hear his perspective on last Saturday's controversial fight, where Williams was awarded a twelve round majority decision win at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

"It was a sloppy fight," Roach said. "Williams slapped his way through it and Lara landed the bigger shots. Just watching it, not really scoring the fight or watching it constantly, it looked like Lara won the fight."

Then again, Roach spoke like he wasn't shocked it went to Williams.

"But one thing about some judges, they like aggressive people - the guys that come forward - and they give them a lot of credit for that even though they get hit a lot," Roach said. "So I can see why they maybe stole that fight from him (Lara) because the one thing about the Cuban guys, they're counter-punchers and it's hard to win sometimes when you're a counter-puncher unless you knock a guy out.

"I'm not saying he (Williams) won the fight. Lara still looked like he won the fight. But again, I didn't watch every minute of that fight because it was kind of a disappointing fight."