diff --git a/mm/sparse.c b/mm/sparse.c
index 083f5b63e7a8..da432d9f0ae8 100644
--- a/mm/sparse.c
+++ b/mm/sparse.c
@@ -164,9 +164,7 @@ void __meminit mminit_validate_memmodel_limits(unsigned long *start_pfn,
 		WARN_ON_ONCE(1);
 		*start_pfn = max_sparsemem_pfn;
 		*end_pfn = max_sparsemem_pfn;
-	}
-
-	if (*end_pfn > max_sparsemem_pfn) {
+	} else if (*end_pfn > max_sparsemem_pfn) {
 		mminit_dprintk(MMINIT_WARNING, "pfnvalidation",
 			"End of range %lu -> %lu exceeds SPARSEMEM max %lu\n",
 			*start_pfn, *end_pfn, max_sparsemem_pfn);