I don't think he beats Whitebeard, but the difference is that i don't think any top tier alive can beat him either. It shouldn't be used to downplay Mihawk. The difference between Mihawk and the rest of the top tiers is that he is a loner. Unlike other top tiers, he doesn't have a group to protect him when he wants to defend himself or send when he wants to attack. If he wants to kill someone, he has to do it himself. If he has to defend himself, he has to do it himself and the war of the best gave an example of this and when he was the one who noted the power of gaining allies is the most dangerous ever(i don't think it's a coincidence he is the one, as a loner, Oda decided to highlight that power). It's one of the reasons why i believe he is so underrated. When a yonko can count on subordinates to defend and protect himself making him look good, Mihawk has to do everything on his own
Regardless of how you feel about the debate around who is a swordsman or not, by portrayal alone, he should be in that pinnacle of strength. Oda gave him a world title recognized by the one piece world in terms of fighting ability(an acknowledgement only Whitebeard and Kaido received. Even Big Mom who should be the world strongest woman didn't receive such an important title accomplishment, so it should speak volume to how Oda views that title) to the point that he even created an island of swordsmen in the middle of a yonko saga hyped to be so strong even the world government don't come near, is portrayed as Shanks' rival in strength, is portrayed as Zoro's ultimate goal, the firstmate of the future pirate king, destinated to be the future version of Rayleigh, whose character is build entirely around strength. So it's just a matter of putting 2 and 2 together to know he simply can't be anything less than a top tier level fighter
So a diamond man blocking an attack not aimed at him or a Vista stalling him for few seconds shouldn't really be enough to downplay him, not when his full power is reserved for the end of the manga. Seriously the yonko commanders are just getting fleshed out and they don't even seem to be that far out of the reach of the guys in the worst generation. Zoro alone will most likely show his full power against someone even more powerful than Vista, let alone Mihawk who is his ultimate goal
Completely agree. Nothing warrants Mihawk being on that tier as of yet. He wanted to test the gap in power between him and WB, and he got his answer. His attack fell short before it even got to reach WB. Portrayal couldn't of been more clear cut then that. Assessing him by his title alone is nothing but a flimsy argument, especially when his swordsmanship wasn't shown to be above Vistas by any significant margin based on their brief clash.
This is funny because Kizaru received the same treatment at that same moment. Another misunderstood moment. That moment wasn't to dehype Mihawk or Kizaru. It was to hype up Marco and Jozu with Mihawk being known as the world strongest swordsman and Kizaru being known as an admiral. That's why the observers were shocked by their respective attacks being blocked. They were the ones used as a reference to hype them up and you can only be used as a reference when you're considered to be in that pinnacle of power