diff --git a/testing/test_assertion.py b/testing/test_assertion.py
index f039bf476..3ebc3cdcb 100644
--- a/testing/test_assertion.py
+++ b/testing/test_assertion.py
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ def test_sequence_comparison_uses_repr(testdir):
     ])
 
 
+@pytest.mark.xfail("sys.version_info < (2,6)")
 def test_assert_compare_truncate_longmessage(testdir):
     testdir.makepyfile(r"""
         def test_long():