diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index 09d6320e4a..aeb5344eea 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ pyflakes==0.8.1 # MIT
 virtualenv>=13.1.0 # MIT
 
 # this is required for the docs build jobs
-sphinx>=1.5.1 # BSD
+sphinx!=1.6.1,>=1.5.1 # BSD
 oslosphinx>=4.7.0 # Apache-2.0
 openstackdocstheme>=1.5.0 # Apache-2.0
 doc8 # Apache-2.0