I would argue that the fact that the cage is a much bigger area than the ring, makes that a fighter needs to have supreme timing more than being able to cut off the cage. That is not to say it is a useless skill, far from it, but much of the fight will be fought further away from the enclosure than in a ring. Positioning is still of prime importance, but not so much in respect to the cage, as it is in respect to the opponent. Of course, when the fighter is standing close to the cage, the "traditional" tactic of cutting of the cage and postioning still work.
Guys like Machida and Horiguchi are very successful in this respect. They come from a background where fights take place on a mat, making it even harder to cut off the area, resulting in a fight style that is, like I said earlier, much more focused on the positioning and distance in regards to the opponent than on the distance and postioning in regards to the opponent in the ring/cage.
