Will Canelo unify at 168 in 2021 ?

[Perseus]

If he beats Smith I hope he vacates the belt shortly afterwards then fights another title holder for whatever belt they hold.
One fee for a random plastic dust collector nobody cares about is enough.
No need to unify, just keep taking plastic from other plastic holders, get rid of it, go take another one.
There are enough belts out there for Canelo to do that for the rest of his career and never fight for the same trinket twice.

This is not a good idea. All it accomplishes is allowing other fighters to run around calling themselves a champion without having to fight anyone. Short of getting rid of belts, the best thing is for a unified champion.

No.
As soon as a boxer unifies too many "world titles" they just create more belts.
A unified champ is the reason for all the WBA belts. They created a "regular" champion so the unified champ wouldn't be burdened with too many mandatory defenses.

The way to reduce the number of "world titles" is to stop fighting for them and/or stop defending them not run around trying to get all of them before another appears.
As long as the boxers keep fighting for them, they'll keep creating more.
Winning boxing "world titles" has become whack-a-mole.

Whack!
Got one!
Doh!......there's another one!
Whack!
Got two!!
Another one!
Whack!
Got three now!
Guess what happens next...

[cormack]

the fly in the ointment however is he has to actually beat Callum Smith to take the belt , and he will have his work cut out doing that .