Source: Steve Kim (Boxing Scene)

Keep your fingers crossed.

HBO is reportedly so happy with how the May 17 Boxing After Dark went that they want to bring back Yuriorkis Gamboa, James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo on October 11 for another triple-header, but this time, the opponents are even more interesting.

Keep in mind this is all rumor, but...

Kirkland (22-0, 19 KO) would be fighting former ESPN prospect of the year Joel Julio (33-1, 30 KO) in what could be an explosive, sensational junior middleweight bout. I get geeked just considering that fight. It could go 90 seconds of any number of grueling, face-bashing rounds. It's the type of fight that seems almost too good to be true, so I wouldn't count the chickens or anything. But can you imagine?

The idea for Gamboa (10-0, 8 KO) would be to have him face veteran Jorge Barrios (47-3-1, 34 KO), who will be 32 by the time this fight would potentially roll around. Barrios has had a tough run of luck over the last year. He was scheduled to face Juan Manuel Marquez in a (pathetic) pay-per-view main event last September, but suffered an eye injury and had to pull out. Rocky Juarez was bumped up to main event status, and then the whole card got canned before Showtime rescued it in November.

Then, Barrios was due to share the ring with Juarez on May 31, underneath Mosley-Judah. Whoops! That card got flushed down the drain, too. So in the 21 months since the Argentinian Barrios gave Joan Guzman all he could handle, he's been able to get into the ring a grand total of one time, knocking out unheralded Decho Bankluaygym in his home country in April 2007.

No word on who Angulo would face, but the first two rumors would be big steps up after steps up already happened a few weeks ago. Then again, Angulo faced the toughest opponent on May 17, even if it didn't turn out that way.

I'll tell you, though, matching Gamboa -- no matter how good he is -- against Barrios? That's supremely aggressive matchmaking. Barrios can fight, has years of experience, has power, and if Gamboa kept  his hands down and got hit like he did against Darling Jimenez, I have to think Barrios stands a good shot at knocking him out. Which is part of what I find so interesting about that potential matchup.

Let's hope this comes to fruition, because it sounds great.