User blog comment:Monkey.D.Me/Care to Dare/@comment-4800978-20120425053733

Whitebeard was death on legs by that point, and even his own crew realised he was weakening from his illness/age. Akainu just was lucky to fight him just before he died, rather then in his prime. Not to mention Akainu burnt off half his face and scorched all of his insides, you know that's got to affect your performance somehow. =P