diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index deb091d96..01f545922 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ exclude .travis.yml
 exclude .landscape.yml
 exclude src/pip/_vendor/Makefile
 exclude tox.ini
-exclude dev-requirements.txt
+exclude *-requirements.txt
 exclude appveyor.yml
 
 recursive-include src/pip/_vendor *.pem
diff --git a/docs-requirements.txt b/docs-requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9bdbf1b3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs-requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+sphinx == 1.6.1
+git+https://github.com/python/python-docs-theme.git#egg=python-docs-theme
+git+https://github.com/pypa/pypa-docs-theme.git#egg=pypa-docs-theme
+
+# XXX: This is a workaround for conf.py not seeing the development pip version
+#      when the documentation is built on ReadTheDocs.
+.
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 0afeac3ff..74d73b39d 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -68,6 +68,11 @@ try:
 except ImportError:
     version = release = 'dev'
 
+# We have this here because readthedocs plays tricks sometimes and there seems
+# to be a hiesenbug, related to the version of pip discovered. This is here to
+# help debug that if someone decides to do that in the future.
+print(version)
+
 # The language for content autogenerated by Sphinx. Refer to documentation
 # for a list of supported languages.
 # language = None
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 2e36058f1..8a0116b14 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -15,11 +15,7 @@ install_command = python -m pip install {opts} {packages}
 usedevelop = True
 
 [testenv:docs]
-deps =
-    sphinx == 1.6.1
-    git+https://github.com/python/python-docs-theme.git#egg=python-docs-theme
-    git+https://github.com/pypa/pypa-docs-theme.git#egg=pypa-docs-theme
-
+deps = -r{toxinidir}/docs-requirements.txt
 basepython = python2.7
 commands =
     sphinx-build -W -b html -d {envtmpdir}/doctrees docs docs/build/html