Why did McCracken set Joshua up to try and box Usyk?

Think you got it spot on, except the last paragraph.
Joshua got hurt early, but I wouldn't say he went into survival mode

I'd like to add that McCraken shouting "Brilliant" all night was probably to stop Joshua from being demoralized, think they knew ahead of time that Joshua would be outboxed, but the plan was to just keep throwing, land something anything and let the natural power take the smaller Usyk out.
Personally I think it was a good plan overall, just the execution wasnt good, Joshua coming in bouncing on his feet was always gonna be a disaster vs Usyk, due to all the feints from the Ukrainian.

 

Watch the fight again, Usyk took away everything that AJ was doing. starting with jab and finishing with his uppercuts. There was nothing that AJ could do in that fight, only lucky shot, but that's impossible if you are more tired than your opponent

 

Not sure i'd count that as "coming back after being hurt to win"
Yes he avenged his defeat in the rematch, but on the night he couldnt come back to win.

Personally I dont even think he was hurt that bad vs Usyk. So i dont think it will be much of a factor. It just showed that Usyk can hurt him, but everyone already knew that, except the casuals who think if you dont have a 90% KO, you cant punch.

 

I think the idea was for AJ's jab to control distance and pace of the fight and then that open Usyk up to bigger punches as it did in the 5th and 6th. Problem is Usyk's footwork was simply brilliant and he employed much more upper body movement than we had seen previous.
Joshua was really tentative when he threw and that just allowed Usyk to take over especially later in the fight when as expected Joshua's gas tank emptied.

 

Well, it certainly looked that way.
So what did you think the game plan was?

 

He thought the size difference could negate the skill difference and didn't trust Joshua's chin and gas tank either. They were also looking for a hometown decision. I knew Joshua would come out and box, because he doesn't have the heart to put it on Usyk or the gas tank to sustain that pressure, but i also thought he'd counter more, try to catch Usyk coming in more and go to the body more. He did for a couple rounds and stopped

Disappointed in the bodybuilder. He stands no chance in the rematch

 

McCracken is just a basic amateur trainer, use your jab and keep your guard up, traditional European style, he did say after that the fight that AJ should have applied pressure behind the jab, but he didn`t teach AJ to feint or anything.

 

Fury leans on smaller opponents to wear them down and gets a rest at the same time, Wlad used to do this as well. I wonder why AJ never really used this tactic, maybe he's just not that good at getting inside and tying opponents up.

 

He hoped it'd either be a hometown robbery or Usyks chin wouldn't be good for some reason

 

You will get your prized spastic brain damaged talking that **** mark

 

Exactly, they are setting aj up for a wilder level brain damaging.
Just except it AJ fanboys, her doesnt have it in his DNA to beat Uysk

 

Yeah, I don't know why everyone assume he did. Why are everyone so sure that they didn't have a more aggressive game plan that Joshua just found very hard to implement?

 

I think it's more a case of "everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face" than having the wrong plan. Usyk is so unique that's it very, very hard to prepare for him. I do think they weren't prepared for him opening up so fast, though.

Something I was surprised by is that Joshua didn't snap the jab, more pawed with it. I don't know why that happened.

Only using it as a lead hand control and range finder won't bother Usyk much at all, just give him something to counter. He must mix that up with hard, snappy jabs, to try and get Usyk off balance.