Eh that's just stall until he has something else to do.
Like the seraphim stopping Luffy and Zoro.
Seraphim could have been easily trashed by those two but oda kept L and Z occupied meanwhile other points in the plot got fleshed.
Lucci Vs Zoro is so far shorter than Zoro Vs Apoo and we know how that one looked at the beginning.
Then it ended in a move changing the whole measurement of the fight.