That's exactly how they seem with a depressed Kizaru sandbagging and feeding his enemy, or Kuzan feeling sorry for his father figure being bullied by the absolute scum of the sea. Logically the first thing Kuzan would do against an legit opponent is turn the landscape back to the ice age, only then will his cooling powers work to the point where they can inflict frostbite on Akainu who is made of magma. All Kuzan did was hesitantly punch Garp the way he taught him, and the rest worked out by itself