Coming off a win in June, there might have been some question in Tecia Torres’ mind about whether her phone would ring a couple weeks later with the biggest fight of her career.

Torres (6-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) beat Angela Hill (2-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) by unanimous decision to open the pay-per-view main card of UFC 188 in Mexico City. A week later, women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk defended her title with a dominant third-round TKO of Jessica Penne in Berlin.

So the timing was right, and it stood to reason that maybe … just maybe … Torres might get the next crack at “Joanna Champion.” Had that happened, though, it might have been moot, Torres said.

“I looked back at it with my coaches, and it’s probably best that they didn’t ask me because I would’ve said no,” Torres said this past week while at UFC 192 at Toyota Center in Houston. “I’m young still in my career and I’m young in age that I’ll have enough time to get better and evolve before I go against Joanna. I think Michelle Waterson is a good fight for me and a good win, and a couple more past her, I’d be ready for a title shot.”

Torres fights the highly touted Waterson (13-4 MMA, 1-0 UFC), a former Invicta atomweight champ who returned to strawweight to sign with the UFC, at UFC 194 in December.

Waterson – “The Karate Hottie” – submitted Angela Magana in July in her UFC debut, and at that point, Torres knew it was a good matchup for her. What followed was unfortunate for her, needing to wait out a Waterson injury. But Torres has her long-term goals mapped out, and they include Waterson.

“When I saw her fight Magana, who I previously fought, right away I texted (UFC matchmaker) Sean Shelby and said I wanted that to be my next fight,” Torres said. “But she broke her hand. I thought they’d give me someone else and not make me wait until December. Fortunately, I got the fight. But I had to wait until December. Another six months without fighting sucks – I wish I had fought three or four months from my fight and stay active. This will only be my second fight this year, and I hope next year I’ll have at least three.”

Perhaps one of those three next year will be a title fight. Jedrzejczyk (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) co-headlines UFC 193 next month in Australia against Valerie Letourneau (8-3 MMA, 3-0 UFC) – who happens to be one of Torres’ teammates at American Top Team in Florida.

The announcement that Letourneau would be the next strawweight title challenger took Torres by surprise, not that she’s counting her teammate out.

“I wasn’t asked at all. They just went to Valerie. That was a shock,” Torres said. “I’m happy for her – she’s from my camp. I think she’s going to do well. But it was definitely a shock. I didn’t think that would happen – I’m No. 5.”

For more from Torres, check out the video above.

And for more on UFC 194, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.