Nick Denton

declared bankruptcy

to stave off his worst fear — that Hulk Hogan could take over his beloved gossip website Gawker, the entrepreneur says.

Without bankruptcy protection, “there is nothing to prevent ­[Hogan] — a single creditor who is backed by a billionaire investor who has publicly declared his personal vendetta against me and the company — from immediately seeking . . . to seize my assets,” Denton said in a filing submitted in Manhattan federal court Monday.

The investor is PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who secretly funded Hogan’s suit.