Tecia Torres seeks higher education outside the Octagon

Known as "The Tiny Tornado," Tecia Torres could soon be known as the "Brainy Tornado" when she returns to school to work on her master's degree in criminology.

Ironically, it was fear that originally drove Torres away from her education and towards a life of battling other human beings inside a cage.

"In a dream world if I wasn't a scaredy cat, I'd work for the FBI or something like that. That's always been a dream of mine since I was a child to work for the FBI or DEA or something cool like that," Torres said to Damon Martin of FoxSports.com.

Torres chose to become a pro fighter in 2012, signing with budding all-female promotion Invicta FC where she went undefeated against current UFC strawweights Paige VanZant, Rose Namajunas, and Felice Herrig. That success meant putting her education on hold.

"I graduated college in 2010, I thought I'd go to grad school then and I was accepted under a different program and I ended up moving away and pursuing fighting instead of graduate school, but I knew I always wanted to do it. So I thought why not now?" Torres said. "I applied and got accepted so I'm going to start that journey in January."

Juggling the workload of postgraduate classes and the training schedule of a UFC fighter would be overwhelming for most, but Torres only sees upside in taking on the extra responsibility.

"I've always known that I wanted to pursue higher education and not necessarily pursue a career in criminal justice, but I know I do want to work with women and children. I just want to have that under my belt, to say I got my master's," she said.

"My parents both made it to ninth grade and then dropped out so I just want to have that higher education so when I have kids one day I'll be able to tell them and I'll be a better role model for them."

Torres faces Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger on Dec. 12 at UFC 194.