Butbul started training in judo when he was five years old at Oren Smadja's school. On 19 September 2014, Butbul took part in the under 21 European championship which was held in Bucharest and won the bronze medal after defeating Nuno Saraiva of Portugal on the medal match.[17][18]
Butbul's first medal at a senior competition came at the 'European Open Sofia' in January 2016 as he won the bronze after he defeated Sam Van't Westende of the Netherlands.[19][20]
On 11 November 2016, Butbul participated in the under 23 European Championship in Tel Aviv and won the silver in the 73 kg weight category after losing to Hidayet Heydarov of Azerbaijan in the final.[21][22][23][24]
On 11 February 2017, Butbul took part at the prestigious Paris Grand Slam for the first time and won a bronze medal.[11][12] In the quarter-final match he defeated local French Loïc Korval but lost in the semi-final to Japan's Soichi Hashimoto. He then battled for the bronze against Giyosjon Boboev of Uzbekistan and won after he got a Waza-ari in golden score time.[25]
Butbul represents Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Competing in the men's 73 kg weight category, Butbul was to start his competition fighting the winner of a match between Algerian Fethi Nourine and Sudanese Mohamed Abdalarasool – who both withdrew instead of facing an Israeli opponent in order to express solidarity with Palestine.[33][34][35] Advancing without a fight to the round of 16, Butbul faced Moldova's Victor Sterpu, the 2020 European champion, and beat him with an ippon. At the quarterfinals, he lost to the South Korean 2018 world championAn Chang-rim, keeping a chance to win bronze through the repechage. Losing in the repechage to the Canadian 2016 Pan American championArthur Margelidon, Butbul finished the competition in seventh place.[36][37][38][39]
In the mixed team event, Butbul was a member of the Israeli team that won bronze. He competed three times and one won of his matches.[40]
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