The rankings schedule has made it way back to featherweight.

Not too much has changed in the division since I last came out with my 145-pound top 10, but we did have some debuts and a mild upset or too.

Here is a look at my latest top 10 for the featherweight division.

1. Jose Aldo (19-1) – Aldo is the champion and awaits his next opponent. It looks to be Kenny Florian, but a date and location have yet to be set. Aldo showed some signs of vulnerability against Mark Hominick, but still dominated a great deal of their 25-minute fight. Florian will need to be on top of his game to take Aldo’s title.

2. Chad Mendes (10-0) – The wrestling master has been labeled the No. 1 contender for Aldo, but he opted not to wait for the champion to heal up with some injuries and will now take on Rani Yahya at UFC 133, with his title shot on the line. Mendes likely has the grappling edge in this one, but will have to avoid the slick submissions of Yahya.

3. Kenny Florian (14-5) – Florian won his featherweight debut over Diego Nunes and now appears to be in line for a title shot. Florian didn’t look his best, but the first fight at a lower weight class is always the toughest. Florian will have a strong game plan to fight Aldo, the question will be if he can execute it?

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Well, I have released all of my rankings for each weight class, so now I work my way back to my pound-for-pound list.

There hasn’t been an overwhelming amount of action in the UFC in the two months since I first released this list, but here is a look at the latest rankings.

1. Anderson Silva (28-4): Silva hasn’t competed since last February against Vitor Belfort, but he does have a fight that is getting closer and closer. Silva will face Yushin Okami at UFC 134 in August, looking to avenge a DQ loss to Okami back in 2006. Silva still has been the most impressive champion the UFC has ever had, despite a few lackluster performances. His knockout wins are legendary and his KO of Belfort was one of the greatest front kicks ever seen in MMA.

2. Georges St. Pierre (22-2): St. Pierre successfully defended his UFC Welterweight Championship against Jake Shields back at UFC 129 on April 30. It was another decision win for GSP, making it four straight, but a win nonetheless. St. Pierre suffered an eye injury during the bout, which hampered him in the final few rounds. Still, GSP is dealing with a lot of criticism following the bout and is now likely to face Strikeforce champion, Nick Diaz, as opposed to moving up to middleweight to face Silva.

3. Jose Aldo (19-1): Aldo also defended his UFC Featherweight Championship at UFC 129, beating Mark Hominick by decision. Aldo looked very beatable in the fifth and final round, as he was taken down and pounded on by a bloody Hominick in the final five minutes, but he still managed to do enough prior to that to earn a win. Aldo was originally expected to face Chad Mendes at UFC 133 in a title defense, but a medical suspension will keep Aldo from fighting until the fall of 2011.

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It’s Wednesday night, which means another edition of my top 10 rankings.

The featherweights get the spotlight this week, headlined by UFC king, Jose Aldo.

So, without further ado, here is my top 10.

(If you need to go back and find my pound-for-pound, heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight or lightweight rankings, click on the links)

1. Jose Aldo (19-1) – Aldo is one of the top strikers in all of MMA as his leg kicks are one of the most devastating strikes in the game. Aldo struggled toward the end of his win over Mark Hominick at UFC 129, but it was later discovered he was dealing with an infection leading up to the fight. Still, Aldo found a way to beat up Hominick for four rounds and retain his title.

2. Chad Mendes (10-0) – The protégé of Urijah Faber is unbeaten in his MMA career and he continues to develop his striking to go along with his overpowering wrestling. Mendes is set to take on Aldo for the title later this year, but the memory of seeing Faber get blasted in the leg by Aldo may haunt him heading into the fight. Mendes appears to posses the ability to take Aldo to the ground. But, the question is, what will Mendes be able to do to Aldo when the fight hits the ground and can he hold the champ down for 25 minutes?

3. Kenny Florian (13-5) – Florian has yet to fight at 145 pounds, but I still consider him one of the best now that he is jumping into the mix. Florian has only suffered losses to some of the best at 155 pounds and his style should pose a lot of problems for the top featherweights in the UFC. He begins his march towards a title against Diego Nunes at UFC 131, and a win will likely make him the No. 1 contender to the featherweight title later in 2011.

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Something didn’t look right with Jose Aldo in his final round of his bout with Mark Hominick at UFC 129.

Apparently, there was something wrong.

In a report by Sherdog.com’s Gleidson Venga, Aldo was taking antibiotics during the week for a toe infection.

UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo was taking antibiotics for a toe infection just days before his April 30 title defense against Mark Hominick at UFC 129, Nova União leader Andre Pederneiras told Sherdog.com on Tuesday.

“He suffered a cut on his toe [on April 23] and it got infected with bacteria,” said Pederneiras. “He went through heavy medical treatment with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory pills from Sunday to Tuesday. He took the heavy dosage so that he wouldn’t have to take more drugs closer to the fight.”

Rumors that Aldo wasn’t feeling well began swirling during Friday’s “Super Seven” meeting in Toronto, when the Brazilian made an early exit from a Q&A session featuring all of the UFC’s current titlists.

Aldo actually looked strong early on as his striking was on point against Hominick and clearly he did a great deal of damage to Hominick’s face.

However, Aldo did stand more flat footed than he has in past fights, we eating punches he normally wouldn’t eat, and he had a terrible fifth round where he basically laid on his back and took a lot of punishment.

Perhaps Aldo didn’t have the energy to get off his back because of the infection and antibiotics, but he still did get a win and he still deserves to be one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

While the last round did raise questions about Aldo’s ability to fight off his back, if he wasn’t at 100 percent, that round may not be a good example.

Georges St. Pierre (AP Photograph) successfully defended his UFC Welterweight Championship once again on Saturday, beating Jake Shields by unanimous decision in the main event of UFC 129.

However, despite the win, St. Pierre was less than impressive in his victory.

St. Pierre managed to keep the fighting standing for 25 minutes, even avoiding takedowns while on one leg, but St. Pierre never had Shields in any real danger of finishing the fight.

GSP used his jab and overhand right hand to easily control the first two rounds and used a head kick in round three to drop Shields. Late in the third round, Shields bum rushed GSP for a takedown and got a finger in the eye of St. Pierre that caused him to have blurred vision. Shields then followed with a few jabs that made GSP’s vision event worse.

The concerns over his eye kept St. Pierre from really attacking over the last 10 minutes and two judges awarded Shields the final two rounds of the fight.

Nonetheless, it was a unanimous decision win for St. Pierre, who has defended his title six times successfully and improves to 22-2 in his career. The question now will be whether he will still fight at welterweight, or move up to middleweight.

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