[19] Butbul's first medal at a senior competition came at the 2016 European Open Sofia in Bulgaria in January as he won a bronze after he defeated Sam van 't Westende of the Netherlands.

[20][21] On 11 November, Butbul participated in the 2016 European U23 Championships in Tel Aviv and won the silver in the 73 kg weight category after losing to Hidayat Heydarov of Azerbaijan in the final.

[11][12] In the quarter-final match he defeated local French Loïc Korval but lost in the semi-final to Japan's Soichi Hashimoto.

[19] In April, Butbul won the bronze medal at the 2017 Antalya Grand Prix in Turkey[27][28] after he defeated Rok Drakšič of Slovenia.

Butbul participated in the 2017 European Championships held in Warsaw, Poland, and finished in 5th place after he lost in the semi-final to Russia's Musa Mogushkov and in the bronze medal match to Tommy Macias of Sweden.

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.

[34][35][36] 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.

Losing in the repechage to the Canadian 2016 Pan American champion Arthur Margelidon, Butbul finished the competition in seventh place.