There is no single instance where WB looked superior to Akainu in the war. The plot already saved WB when the man had an heart attack and Akainu misteriously disappeared instead of killing him right there. Before that Akainu casually blocked an attack from WB with his hands in his pockets and then clashed with him, with the Magma and the Gura punches.
Then an enraged WB hit him with a sneak attack, Akainu countered attack and removed a portion of his face, then WB hit him again (and I think that him still fighting with a portion of his head blown off also shows his abnormal strenght of will aside from his endurance and I don't think that Akainu expected WB in those conditions to attack back in that way either) with another enraged punch and wasn't able to knock him out or to incapacitate him (as we see him screaming at WB while he falls in the hole and we also see the presence of water which would have lead him to drowning, if he was in the conditions some of you think he was in), let alone defeat him.
And by the end of the war, Akainu looked nowhere near done.
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There's no substantial evidence of Akainu being defeated by Whitebeard in that instance.
Last time I checked, defeated means defeated. Just like Luffy did with Crocodile, just like he did with Doflamingo etc.
Who defeated Akainu in the war? No one.