Yes, it's called ring rust, when boxers is gone for so long from the ring, somewhat they become a bit rusty. There are great boxers who can just shake this off in a couple of rounds and be back. But most of the time even good boxers need more rounds to acclimatized themselves again inside the ring, with their power and timing and this is what Casimero is doing here.
I think one of the good example of this so-called ring rust is the fight between Teofimo Lopez and Vasily Lomachenco where Lomachenco was out of the ring for too long that he started really slow during the fight. When all his ring rust is removed, it is too late for Lomachengco to win the fight. Another example is Tete after a year of rest from his injury and got a mandatory fight against Casimero. Zolani Tete was caught by surprise and was unable to adjust costing him the fight. Tete was KO'ed by Casimero on that fight.
Another reason is that is a new division for him, so he just can't fight a higher rank fighter.
I think that works in his favor. Casimer need to tune up on his new Division so I think having Akaho as his first opponent in the division is a good thing. Tough but not explosive fighter.
He needs someone like Akaho, who is good in paper but probably he can beat to be his opponents, to bring back his confidence and make himself accustomed to the weight and see how he can absorb the power.
I agree, I also think that Casimero is the better boxer of the two and we might be in for a treat here since it looks like Casimero is well prepared on this fight.