Boxing News 2014: Juan Manuel Marquez to Face Mike Alvarado on May 17 at the Forum

Juan Manuel Marquez and Mike Alvarado will look to get back to their winning ways when they collide on May 17 at the newly refurbished Forum in Inglewood, Calif.

Top Rank Promotions CEO confirmed to ESPN that Marquez and Alvarado, who are both coming off losses in their previous fights, agreed to face each other in a welterweight title elimination bout.

Arum said that the Marquez-Alvarado showdown will be action packed and will also have historical significance since the fight will be held at the Forum, which was previously considered as a boxing hotbed.

"Besides the fact that this is a tremendous fight between two exciting fighters, the thing I like most about it is the historical significance," Arum said. "They spent a lot of money refurbishing the Forum and it brings back memories of all the great fights that took place there."

It will also be a homecoming, of sorts, for Marquez, who was a regular fixture in fight cards held at the Forum during the earlier days of his professional boxing career. The 40-year-old Mexican first fought at the Forum in 1995 and went on to fight 11 more times at the historic venue.

"I think this fight has a lot of story lines," Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti said. "It's at the Forum and it will be raucous, and we know Marquez's history there. And, obviously, when the bell rings it'll be a hellacious fight where neither guy will back up."

The winner of the upcoming showdown between Marquez and Alvarado will become the mandatory challenger for the WBO welterweight title to be disputed by Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley in their rematch on April 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Marquez hasn't been interested in facing Pacquiao again after scoring a sixth-round knockout during their fourth showdown in December 2012, but Arum revealed that the Mexican boxing icon has already reconsidered.

"Marquez wants to win that title and that's an incentive for taking this fight with Alvarado, because he knows he will get that opportunity if he wins. So if it's Pacquiao, he said he would fight him again, and if Bradley wins, well he wants that fight too," Arum said.

Marquez is coming off a split-decision loss to Bradley in October last year, while Alvarado lost his WBO light welterweight title to Ruslan Provodnikov a week after the Marquez-Bradley bout.