Bugbear or Variant Human for an unarmed fighter?

Hi guys,

My next character is going to be an unarmed echo Knight fighter.

I'm stuck between the two races due to the tavern brawler feat. If I choose human variant I'll get it straight away, giving me more options later to increase other things. Whereas if I choose bugbear I'll have to wait until level 4.

My other issue is that the bugbear has some useful melee abilities which would make sense for my character (a gladiator who has been connected to a wrestling champion and uses their echo to bring them into the dnd reality).

Any advice would be great!