DENVER, Colo. – A Colorado man reportedly choked to death Sunday while trying to scarf down a half-pound doughnut as a part of an eating challenge at the new Voodoo Doughnuts in Denver



Denver’s 9News reported that Travis Malouff, 42, died while trying to eat the giant doughnut in less than 80 seconds as part of the shop’s “Tex-Ass Challenge.”



Malouff died from “asphyxia, due to obstruction of the airway,” according to the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner.



"It's tragic," Travis Malouff’s father, Curtis Malouff, told 9News. "It's a loss of life that shouldn't be."



The challenge requires participants to eat the large doughnut – which is the equivalent of six regular doughnuts, and has a 7-inch diameter – in exchange for a free meal and a free button.



Voodoo Doughnuts first opened in Portland in 2003, expanding outside of Oregon for the first time when it opened the shop in Denver in December 2013. The chain frequently finds itself in the news: Last year, it got in the political spirit with life-size voodoo dolls of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and poked fun at Oregon standoff leader Ammon Bundy’s arrest with a custom doughnut.