diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index e440094..4fac8fa 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ oslotest>=1.10.0 # Apache-2.0
 coverage!=4.4,>=4.0 # Apache-2.0
 
 # 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
 reno>=1.8.0 # Apache-2.0