In a battle of endurance, Silver Surfer wins without question. He was built to accept intense amounts of punishment and has the ability to push out extreme amounts of energy. That's what he was made for. Truth be told Cable cannot hope to possibly match Norrin Radd's overall endurance and invulnerability. ( As evident in their fight. ) But I disagree that Nathan doesn't have the power to hold his own in a short battle. Had he not been attempting to make a point and concentrated more of his energy on the Surfer it would have been a better fight.
Nathan's output throughout his comic career has been compared to that of the Phoenix Force on various occasions. ( ie; Cable #29, Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1-4, Askani'son #1-4 etc. ) But since his body can't maintain the power levels he has the ability to omit he just can't beat Surfer. Ever. Unless Nathan comes to a point where he doesn't need to worry about the physical strains of his powers he'll never be able to take on comic level beings. Not without worrying about burning out or some other physical infliction.
Side note: What happened to his HEALING factor during that fight? In the preceeding comics of Cable & Deadpool #1-9, he and Deadpool were Physically FUSED together and merely ripped their bodies apart on various occasions. And moments later their flesh was healed nigh instantaneously. And as I recall, Nathan got some of Deadpool's DNA and same with Deadpool. This allowed Deadpool to use Graymalkin's teleporter, right? So why didn't Cable easily heal after Surfer's attack? Bad writing?