diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index d71d5b4ff..adf6009a5 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -48,8 +48,6 @@ commands = pip wheel -w {envtmpdir}/build --no-deps .
 
 [testenv:bdist]
 deps =
-    pygments
-    docutils
     setuptools
     wheel
 skip_install = true
@@ -59,8 +57,6 @@ install_command =
 whitelist_externals =
     rm
 commands =
-    # check metadata and rst long_description
-    python setup.py check --restructuredtext --strict
     # clean up build/ and dist/ folders
     python -c 'import shutil; shutil.rmtree("dist", ignore_errors=True)'
     python setup.py clean --all