In Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freeman’s Ellis Boyd Redding character reads a letter from Tim Robbins’ Andy Dupree: "Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

Given Floyd Mayweather’s post-fight comments after his unanimous decision in his rematch against Marcos Maidana, there’s a flicker of life in the boxing and distribution communities about the long-moribund prospects for a mega-fight with Manny Pacquaio. Maybe.

“We don't know what the future holds, as of right now," Mayweather said. "Anything is possible. At the moment I want to go home, have a break, spend some time with my children and then see who's next in May. Hopefully it's Manny Pacquiao.”

But the comments from "Money" also included some qualifiers before a "Pac Man" battle could ensue.  "If the Pacquiao fight does happen it has to happen on Showtime pay-per-view only and Mayweather Promotions have to do the fight.”

Pac Man, of course, is a member of Bob Arum’s Top Rank stable and HBO’s PPV camp.

Then, there’s the longstanding animus and mistrust between the men who have been boxing's best pound-for-pound pair for the better part of a decade.

A meeting in 2009 was scotched over disputes about drug-testing protocols. Mayweather has also made racial and homophobic slurs against Pacquiao, which many view as the undefeated champion running scared from the Filipino politician.

Of course to have any chance, Pacquiao has to take care of business in his welterweight defense against decided underdog Chris Algieri on Nov. 22 in Macau.

"I'm gonna go and talk to my team and see what the future holds," Mayweather said. "I don't know who I'm fighting in May but I expect to fight in May. Manny Pacquiao needs to focus on the guy in front of him. Once he gets past him, he can look to the future. If the Pacquiao fight presents itself let's make it happen."

That's hopeful. Should Pac Man hold up his end of the bargain in China -- maybe, just maybe -- the stage could finally be set for a megafight that would have been far more intriguing five years ago.

But time is running out on this sliver of PPV hope.

Both fighters are getting to the end – Mayweather is adamant he’s out after the two remaining fights on his six-bout contract with Showtime. CBS’s premium network would certainly appreciate a nice going away promotion(s) from Mayweather, who earned a minimum of $32 million on Saturday night. That figure will rise depending on how many bought the fight: the first Mayweather-Maidana bout reportedly drew just 900,000.

Mayweather and Pacquiao in May. Perhaps followed a year from now by a big Money finale, a rematch against Canello Alvarez – their September 2013 fight generated 2.4 million buys and a a PPV record $150 million in revenue.

Hope is a good thing ... and could be a very profitable thing.

Pound-for-pound pay-per-view boxing champion Floyd Mayweather made it two wins in a row over Marcos Maidana in a mega pay-per-view event Saturday night.

Mayweather outpointed Maidana, using his legs and mobility to frustrated the powerful Maidana  to win an easy unanimous decision on all three judges’ scorecards. The second fight did not match up to the action of the first fight on May 3 in which Maidana used his aggression to take the fight to Mayweather, who ended up winning that fight in a much closer decision.

The first Mayweather-Maidana fight drew a reported 900,000 PPV buys.

Mayweather, the highest-paid sports athlete in 2013, was guaranteed a reported $32 million for the fight. After the fight, Mayweather -- who ran his record to 47-0, said he will look to enter the ring again in May, although he did not reveal an opponent.

Showtime is betting that it’s Sept. 13 Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidana pay-per-view boxing rematch provides a bigger PPV performance punch than its May 3 predecessor.

Saturday’s PPV fight – the fourth of Showtime’s six fight deal with the undefeated and pound-for-pound PPV king – is the first rematch for Mayweather’s during his PPV career. Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza told Multichannel News that the competitive nature of the first fight -- which Mayweather won by decision in a very action-packed fight – will draw more viewers to Saturday’s rematch.

Espinoza would not reveal PPV buys for Mayweather-Maidana 1, but published reports put the total around 900,000 buys. Mayweather had generated more than 1 million buys in each of his last six fights before his May fight with Maidana.

“We finally found an opponent who really rose to the occasion and provided a real test for Mayweather,” Espinoza said. “There’s a group of fans who may have bypassed the first fight because they assumed Floyd would be as dominant as usual and who are now not going to miss the second one because of the element of risk. That’s not an element that’s often perceived in Mayweather fights because he is so skilled.”

Unlike the first fight where Showtime had to market the relatively unknown Maidana, Espinoza said Showtime is letting the action and competiveness of the first fight lead its marketing push to fight fans. He added the bulk of its marketing focus is focused on reaching casual and non-boxing fans who likely didn’t see the first fight.

The network has “doubled down” on digital content across all platforms, according to Espinoza. Showtime has aggressively posted short form clips on Instagram and Facebook, as well as streamed full episodes of its All Access documentary series the web. Espinoza also said the network is offering behind-the-scenes clips from both Mayweather and Maidana’s training camps in an effort to spur interest in the fight.

“We’re offering more [digital] content that we’ve ever done for any other fight,” Espinoza said.

The network is also leaning on sister broadcast network CBS to help market the fight. CBS has offered cross promotional spots on the NFL On CBS and on network-televised Southeastern Conference college football games, as well as CBS’ primetime and late night shows.

“That level of support is unprecedented in the recent past for boxing PPV’s,” said Espinoza. “The opportunity to get in front of millions of viewers at one time with our promotional content on CBS is a tremendous benefit to the event itself as well as for Floyd personally and the Showtime network.”

Mayweather’s flamboyant personality has also become part of the promotion, with the fighter using social media to market the fight. Espinoza said the fighter is the network’s secret promotional weapon.

“What we found from consumer research is that what people love about Mayweather fights is the spectacle … it’s the same reason why people who don’t watch football watch the Super Bowl and viewers who aren’t necessarily into award shows watch the Grammys,” Espinoza said. “Mayweather events are huge spectacles from the celebrity value to the circus-like [ring] entrances to the entire presentation of the event. For that reason it makes for a great collective viewing experience.”

Espinoza doesn’t believe that the fight will suffer heavily from an unusually busy 2014 PPV boxing schedule that has already produced five events, compared to only one PPV boxing event at this point last year.

“There is a little risk of consumer fatigue on the wallet, but as for the event itself it’s a very, very attractive fight,” He said.